Behavior-related potentials from single-trial interindividual correlation between event related potentials and behavioral performance reveals right lateralized processing of numerosity.

ABSTRACT

Accumulated functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography evidence indicate that numerosity is first processed in the occipito-parietal cortex. fMRI evidence also indicates right-lateralized processing of numerosity, but there is no consistent evidence from event-related potential (ERP) studies. This study investigated the ERP of numerosity processing in the left, right, and bilateral visual fields. The single-trial ERP-behavioral correlation was applied to show how the ERP was associated with behavioral responses. The results showed a significant early behavioral-ERP correlation on the right N1 component when stimuli were presented in the left visual field rather than in the right visual field. The behavioral ERP correlation was termed BN1. There was bilateral BN1 based on the reaction time or error rate, but the right BN1 was larger than that the left BN1 when the stimulus was present in the bilateral visual field. Therefore, this study provided a new neural marker for individual differences in processing numerosity and suggested that processing numerosity was supported by the right occipito-parietal cortex.