title: An ERP study of simple addition: the semantics and syntax of arithmetic operation sign.
abstract: The aim of the current study was to examine brain activity of adult regular calculators while processing addition sums with different types of answers. The task was a verification task, the incorrect answers were divided into two types: one was comprised of three numbers that do not belong to any additive triplet (such as 2, 4, 7) and it was always near the correct result (± 1); the other was a number which is related to the two numbers which appear in the stimulus but belongs to an incorrect competing triplet of numbers and it was always in a greater distance from the correct answer. Differences were found between the different types of answers in the behavioral reaction time with longest reaction time for the competing triplet and the shortest reaction time for the correct answer. In addition, differences in the latency and amplitude of the N170, N270, N400 and P600 components were found among the different types of answers. It can be concluded from these results that the effect of the interference of the competing triplets is greater than the split effect (distance effect), and that there is a different time zone for coding the numbers and coding of other more general syntactic-semantic arithmetic signs.
authors.affiliation: Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities, Department of Learning Disabilites, Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Mt. Carmel, Haifa 31905, Israel.
authors.forename: Shelley
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shaul
authors.forename: Pearla
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nesher
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055641:Mathematical Concepts; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Event related potentials; basic arithmetic calculation; distance effect; number triplets