title: Parallels in stimulus-driven oscillatory brain responses to numerosity changes in adults and seven-month-old infants.
abstract: Previous studies provide indirect evidence for an ontogenetically continuous Approximate-Number System. We employed a rapid steady-state visual-presentation paradigm combined with electroencephalography to measure stimulus-driven neural oscillatory responses to numerosities in infants and adults. Steady-state repetition of the same numerosity across a 2.4-sec time block yielded an increase in the stimulus-locked neural entrainment in both groups. Entrainment changes following a numerosity switch varied by the ratio of the numerosities, consistent with Weber's Law. These similarities thus provide direct evidence for an ontogenetically continuous Approximate-Number System. Moreover, the degree of neural entrainment significantly predicted infants' number discrimination measured behaviorally two months later.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA. melissa.libertus@jhu.edu
authors.forename: Melissa E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Libertus
authors.forename: Elizabeth M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Brannon
authors.forename: Marty G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Woldorff
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015415:Biomarkers; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D059907:Functional Neuroimaging / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D055641:Mathematical Concepts; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers