Brain responses to lexical attestedness and phonological well-formedness as revealed by fast periodic visual stimulation.

We investigated the mechanisms underlying the online-processing of phonological constraints using oddball fast-periodic visual stimulation coupled with EEG. We focused on the Sonority Sequencing Principle and examined whether steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) are sensitive to the sonority constraint on syllable onsets. Native French speakers were presented with streams of CCVC non-words (C: consonant, V: vowel) at a fixed 6-Hz base rate.

Is heart rate variability biofeedback useful in children and adolescents? A systematic review.

Background: Heart rate variability (HRV) is considered as an index of both physical and emotional health, and biofeedback aiming to increase the level of HRV has demonstrated extensive beneficial effects. Although HRV biofeedback is commonly and reliably applied in adults, the use of this technique, alone or in addition to other treatments, in children and adolescents has not been widely explored to date.

Methods: This systematic review following PRISMA guidelines covers all human studies using HRV biofeedback in children and adolescents.

Processing of numerical representation of fingers depends on their location in space.

Fingers can express quantities and thus contribute to the acquisition and manipulation of numbers as well as the development of arithmetical skills. As embodied entities, the processing of finger numerical configurations should, therefore, be facilitated when they match shared cultural representations and are presented close to the body. To investigate these issues, the present study investigated whether canonical finger configurations are processed faster than noncanonical configurations or spatially matched dot configurations, taking into account their location in the peripersonal or the extrapersonal space.

Assessing Mathematical School Readiness.

Early math skills matter for later formal mathematical performances, academic and professional success. Accordingly, it is important to accurately assess mathematical school readiness (MSR) at the beginning of elementary school. This would help identifying children who are at risk of encountering difficulties in math and then stimulate their acquisition of mathematical skills as soon as possible.

A rapid, objective and implicit measure of visual quantity discrimination.

There is evidence that accurate and rapid judgments of visual quantities form an essential component of human mathematical ability. However, explicit behavioural discrimination measures of visual quantities are readily contaminated both by variations in low-level physical parameters and higher order cognitive factors, while implicit measures often lack objectivity and sensitivity at the individual participant level. Here, with electrophysiological frequency tagging, we show discrimination differences between briefly presented visual quantities as low as a ratio of 1.

Early activation of Broca's area in grammar processing as revealed by the syntactic mismatch negativity and distributed source analysis.

Though activation of Broca's region in the combinatorial processing of symbols (language, music) has been revealed by neurometabolic studies, most previous neurophysiological research found the earliest grammar indices in the temporal cortex, with inferior-frontal generators becoming active at relatively late stages. We use the attention- and task-free syntactic mismatch negativity (sMMN) event-related potential (ERP) to measure rapid and automatic sensitivity of the human brain to grammatical information in participants' native language (French). Further, sources underlying the MMN were estimated by applying the Parametrical Empirical Bayesian (PEB) approach, with the Multiple Sparse Priors (MSP) technique.

Estimation abilities of large numerosities in Kindergartners.

The approximate number system (ANS) is thought to be a building block for the elaboration of formal mathematics. However, little is known about how this core system develops and if it can be influenced by external factors at a young age (before the child enters formal numeracy education). The purpose of this study was to examine numerical magnitude representations of 5-6 year old children at 2 different moments of Kindergarten considering children's early number competence as well as schools' socio-economic index (SEI).

Numerical and nonnumerical estimation in children with and without mathematical learning disabilities.

There are currently multiple explanations for mathematical learning disabilities (MLD). The present study focused on those assuming that MLD are due to a basic numerical deficit affecting the ability to represent and to manipulate number magnitude ( Butterworth, 1999 , 2005 ; A. J.

Symbolic and nonsymbolic number comparison in children with and without dyscalculia.

Developmental dyscalculia (DD) is a pervasive difficulty affecting number processing and arithmetic. It is encountered in around 6% of school-aged children. While previous studies have mainly focused on general cognitive functions, the present paper aims to further investigate the hypothesis of a specific numerical deficit in dyscalculia.

Effect of face familiarity on age decision.

The present experiment was planned to check whether the extraction of apparent age is affected by face identity (familiarity) or not. According to the traditional view, age estimation should be carried out independently of face identity, because it is one of the visually derived semantic codes (like gender and ethnicity). However, little is known about its underlying mechanisms.