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Language modality does not change how our brain distinguishes different mathematical operations

In this study, we investigate the impact of experience with a signed language on the neurocognitive processes recruited by adults solving single-digit arithmetic problems. We use event-related potentials (ERPs) to identify the components that are modulated by problem size and operation type in Deaf American Sign Language (ASL) native signers as well as in hearing English-speaking participants. Participants were presented with subtraction and multiplication problems in a delayed verification task. Problem size was manipulated in small and large with an additional extra-large subtraction condition to equate the overall magnitude with large multiplication problems. Results show overall comparable behavioral results across groups and similar ERP dissociations between operation types. First, an early operation type effect is observed between 180ms and 210ms post problem onset, suggesting that both groups have a similar attentional differentiation for processing subtraction and multiplication problems. Second, on the posterior-occipital component between 240ms and 300ms, similarly for both groups only subtraction problems show modulation with problem size suggesting that only this category recruit quantity-related processes. Control analyses exclude this effect as being perceptual and magnitude related. These results are the first evidence that the two operations rely on distinct cognitive processes within the ASL native signing population and this distinction is equivalent to the one observed in the English-speaking population.