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Rapid and Direct Encoding of Numerosity in the Visual Stream.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Park, J; DeWind, NK; Woldorff, MG; Brannon, EM
Published in: Cereb Cortex
February 2016

Humans are endowed with an intuitive number sense that allows us to perceive and estimate numerosity without relying on language. It is controversial, however, as to whether there is a neural mechanism for direct perception of numerosity or whether numerosity is perceived indirectly via other perceptual properties. In this study, we used a novel regression-based analytic method, which allowed an assessment of the unique contributions of visual properties, including numerosity, to explain visual evoked potentials of participants passively viewing dot arrays. We found that the human brain is uniquely sensitive to numerosity and more sensitive to changes in numerosity than to changes in other visual properties, starting extremely early in the visual stream: 75 ms over a medial occipital site and 180 ms over bilateral occipitoparietal sites. These findings provide strong evidence for the existence of a neural mechanism for rapidly and directly extracting numerosity information in the human visual pathway.

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Published In

Cereb Cortex

DOI

EISSN

1460-2199

Publication Date

February 2016

Volume

26

Issue

2

Start / End Page

748 / 763

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Visual Perception
  • Visual Pathways
  • Visual Cortex
  • Regression Analysis
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Mathematical Concepts
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Fourier Analysis
 

Citation

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Park, J., DeWind, N. K., Woldorff, M. G., & Brannon, E. M. (2016). Rapid and Direct Encoding of Numerosity in the Visual Stream. Cereb Cortex, 26(2), 748–763. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhv017
Park, Joonkoo, Nicholas K. DeWind, Marty G. Woldorff, and Elizabeth M. Brannon. “Rapid and Direct Encoding of Numerosity in the Visual Stream.Cereb Cortex 26, no. 2 (February 2016): 748–63. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhv017.
Park J, DeWind NK, Woldorff MG, Brannon EM. Rapid and Direct Encoding of Numerosity in the Visual Stream. Cereb Cortex. 2016 Feb;26(2):748–63.
Park, Joonkoo, et al. “Rapid and Direct Encoding of Numerosity in the Visual Stream.Cereb Cortex, vol. 26, no. 2, Feb. 2016, pp. 748–63. Pubmed, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhv017.
Park J, DeWind NK, Woldorff MG, Brannon EM. Rapid and Direct Encoding of Numerosity in the Visual Stream. Cereb Cortex. 2016 Feb;26(2):748–763.
Journal cover image

Published In

Cereb Cortex

DOI

EISSN

1460-2199

Publication Date

February 2016

Volume

26

Issue

2

Start / End Page

748 / 763

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Visual Perception
  • Visual Pathways
  • Visual Cortex
  • Regression Analysis
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Mathematical Concepts
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Fourier Analysis