Spontaneous supra-modal encoding of number in the infant brain
Résumé
The core knowledge hypothesis postulates that infants automatically analyze their environment along abstract dimensions, including number. According to this view, numerosity should be encoded quickly, pre-attentively, and in a supra-modal manner by the infant brain. Here, we provide a direct test of this idea by submitting the neural responses of sleeping 3-month-old infants, measured with high-density electroencephalography (EEG), to decoders designed to disentangle numerical and non-numerical information. The results show the emergence, in approximately 400ms, of a decodable number representation, independent of physical parameters, that separates auditory sequences of 4 versus 12 tones and generalizes to visual arrays of 4 versus 12 objects. Thus, the infant brain contains a number code that transcends sensory modality, sequential or simultaneous presentation, and arousal state.
Domaines
Sciences cognitives
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Gennari_DehaeneLambertz_DecodingNB_CurrentBiol2022.pdf (9.69 Mo)
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