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Poster D in Poster Session D: Wednesday, August 5, 2:00 – 3:45 pm, Kimmel Center, Shorin & Rosenthal Rooms

Univariate and Multivariate ERP Signatures of Division Verification in Adolescents: Evidence for N400-LPC Effects

Mannu Brahmi¹, Samuel Shaki¹; ¹Ariel University

Presenter: Mannu Brahmi

Understanding the neural dynamics underlying arithmetic verification during adolescence provides important insight into the development of symbolic cognition and higher-order numerical reasoning. Although event-related potential (ERP) research has extensively examined addition and multiplication, division remains underexplored despite its curricular centrality and reliance on multiplication fact retrieval and semantic transformation. This study examined ERP signatures distinguishing correct from incorrect single-digit division quotients in early adolescents (n = 22; agemean = 13.72 years) using a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) verification paradigm. A full-epoch mass-univariate t-max analysis (0-796 ms) identified extended intervals of significant activity over centroparietal regions, including an early negative deflection and a later sustained positivity. Cluster-based permutation testing confirmed a robust N400-type negativity (180–320 ms) and a late positive complex (LPC; 460–540 ms), both distributed across centroparietal regions. Trial-level timepoint-by-timepoint multivariate pattern classification (MVPC) further revealed reliable above-chance decoding across an extended post-stimulus window (208-796 ms, FDR-corrected), with sustained significant clusters spanning both N400 and LPC intervals, indicating single-trial discriminability. Together, these convergent univariate and multivariate results demonstrate that division verification during adolescence recruits sequential mismatch-detection and evaluative processes analogous to those observed in other arithmetic domains, extending mechanistic accounts of symbolic numerical cognition.

Topic Area: Development, Individual Differences & Clinical Populations