Investigation of numerical abilities in infants with ERP

描述(由申请人提供)：拟议研究的目标是 探讨婴儿期有关数字表征的神经机制。成年人类 -拥有复杂的数值推理能力，然而，它最近 有人提出，非人类的动物和人类婴儿也可能有 原始的数字意义。新的研究表明 猴子能够比较数字，黑猩猩可以配对 带有数字的抽象符号。此外，人类婴儿自发地 区分新的和熟悉的数值，即使在其他 刺激属性，如表面积，保持不变。这些最新的发现 导致一些研究人员提出 假设原始的数字处理系统是在古代 人类和其他脊椎动物的祖先，这个系统在早期就存在了 人的发展。目前的提案探讨了个体发生学 在人类婴儿中的数字表示 检验这一假说的两个预测。第一，数字歧视 婴儿的特征是数字距离和大小效应与 韦伯定律，就像它在成人和非人类动物身上一样。第二，相同的 神经结构支持婴儿和成人的数字表示。 这些假说将通过记录事件相关电位(ERPs)在 在被动观看数字刺激的过程中，成人和婴儿都是如此。在 建议的实验，受试者将首先熟悉一个标准 数值，然后将显示在数值中变化的新值 与标准的差距。刺激期间将记录事件相关电位 并在稍后分析为数字距离的函数 数字标准和测试刺激。统计建模还将用于 对成人和成人的电活动来源作出推断 婴儿。虽然纯粹的行为研究表明，婴儿可以 仅根据数字区分刺激，建议的非侵入性 神经生物学研究将提供对形式和 婴儿数字表征的神经相关性。 这些见解将有助于更全面地了解 成年人的数学思维，也可能对 向孩子们教授初等数学。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of the proposed research is to investigate the neural about representation of number in infancy. Adult humans -possess sophisticated numerical reasoning abilities, however, it has recently been proposed that non-human animals and human infants may also have a primitive numerical sense. New research suggests that monkeys are capable of comparing numbers, and that chimpanzees can pair abstract symbols with numerosities. Furthermore, human infants spontaneously discriminate between novel and familiar numerical values, even when other stimulus attributes, such as surface area, are held constant. These recent findings have led some researchers to suggest the hypothesis that a primitive numerical processing system evolved in the ancient ancestors of humans and other vertebrates and that system is in place early in human development. The current proposal explores the ontogeny of numerical representations in human infants by testing two predictions of this hypothesis. First, numerical discrimination in infants is characterized by numerical distance and size effects consistent with Weber's Law, Just as it is in adults and nonhuman animals. Second, the same neural architecture supports numerical representations in infants and adults. These hypotheses will be tested by recording Event-Related-Potentials (ERPs) in both adults and infants during passive viewing of numerical stimuli. In the proposed experiments, subjects will first be familiarized with a standard numerical value and then will be shown new values that vary in numerical disparity from the standard. ERPs will be recorded during stimulus presentation and later analyzed as a function of the numerical distance between the numerical standard and test stimuli. Statistical modeling will also be used to make inferences about the sources of electrical activity in both adults and infants. While purely behavioral research has demonstrated that infants can discriminate stimuli based solely on number, the proposed non-invasive neurobiological research will provide new insights into both the format and the neural correlates of numerical representations in infants. Such insights will contribute to a fuller understanding of the development of mathematical thinking in adults, and may also have important implications for teaching elementary mathematics to children.