Data related to the following publication: Hesse Philipp N., Schmitt Constanze, Klingenhoefer Steffen, Bremmer Frank (2017). Preattentive Processing of Numerical Visual Information. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 11: 70. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2017.00070 Brief description of dataset: The stimulus was presented on a TFT monitor (size: 41,8° x 24,3°) 52 cm in front of the participants in a dark, sound attenuated and electrically shielded room. During the experiment EEG was recorded continuously. We used 64 Ag/AgCl active electrodes located according to the extended international 10-20 system. The numerosity stimulus consisted of a continuously displayed black fixation target in the center of the gray screen. Additionally in each trial either one, two or three circular white patches were shown 200 ms after trial onset. These were presented for a random duration between 400 ms and 500 ms either in the left or right visual field. Two different types of patches were presented: i) the radius of the patches had the same value (0.65°) and therefore the patch size was the same (“SizeCon”) ii) the total area of the patches was conserved which resulted in the same total luminance independent of the number of patches (“LumCon”). After a random time between 400 ms and 700 ms after stimulus offset the trials ended. In this study we conducted an oddball experiment with an oddball-ratio of 1:4. In each block consisting of 30 trials a standard-amount of patches (one, two or three) was presented in 80% of all trials (24 trials). The two remaining quantities of patches were shown in 10% (3 trials) of the trials each. This presentation scheme allowed us to compare trials with identical physical properties because each amount of patches served as deviant and standard trial in different blocks. Attention of the participants was drawn off the white patches by a demanding detection task at the fixation target. A total number of 432 blocks consisting of 30 trials was presented to each of the 10 participants. EEG data were evaluated offline. The mastoids (TP9 and TP10) were chosen as new reference. A second-order, zero phase shift Butterworth filter with cutoff frequencies 0.5 and 40 Hz was applied to the continuously recorded data before it was sliced in individual trials that had a time range from 200 ms before to 500 ms after stimulus onset. A baseline correction was performed using with the signals from -110 ms to 0 ms. As a last step trials with eye movement artifacts or electrode signals that exceeded a difference of ±100 µV within an interval of 100 ms were excluded in an artifact rejection step.

This work was supported by a stipend to PNH from the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) and by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB/TRR-135/A2 and IRTG-1901-BrainAct).