Functional neuroanatomy of deductive inference: A language-independent distributed network

doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.04.069

NeuroImage

Volume 37, Issue 3, 1 September 2007, Pages 1005-1016

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.04.069 Get rights and content

Abstract

Studies of brain areas supporting deductive reasoning show inconsistent results, possibly because of the variety of tasks and baselines used. In two event-related functional magnetic imaging studies we employed a cognitive load paradigm to isolate the neural correlates of deductive reasoning and address the role (if any) of language in deduction. Healthy participants evaluated the logical status of arguments varying in deductive complexity but matched in linguistic complexity. Arguments also varied in lexical content, involving blocks and pseudo-words in Experiment I and faces and houses in Experiment II. For each experiment, subtraction of simple from complex arguments (collapsing across contents) revealed a network of activations disjoint from regions traditionally associated with linguistic processing and also disjoint from regions recruited by mere reading. We speculate that this network is divided into “core” and “support” regions. The latter include left frontal (BA 6, 47) and parietal (BA 7, 40) cortices, which maintain the formal structure of arguments. Core regions, in the left rostral (BA 10p) and bilateral medial (BA 8) prefrontal cortex, perform deductive operations. Finally, restricting the complex − simple subtraction to each lexical content uncovered additional activations which may reflect the binding of logical variables to lexical items.

Section snippets

Subjects

Ten (all male) and twelve (6 female) right-handed Princeton University undergraduates with no formal training in logic took part in Experiment I and II, respectively. All subjects were native English speakers with no history of neurological disorders and signed informed consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and the Princeton University Institutional Review Panel prior to participation. In a prescreening session, correct assessment of 28 out of 32 arguments was required for

Behavioral results

Participants accurately detected the logic status of arguments in 93.44% and 95.3% of the trials in Experiment I and II, respectively (the worst individual score was 87.5%). Response time data replicated the load effect seen in the experiment validating argument complexity. (See Table 1 for response time data in the behavioral study and the two fMRI experiments.)

Functional brain activations (Experiment I)

The reading contrast for block and pseudo-word stimuli (see Fig. 2, activations in yellow) revealed regions typically observed in

Language and logic

Across the four semantic domains (blocks, pseudo-words, faces, and houses), the contrast between complex and simple deductions uncovered regions disjoint from primary language areas. These regions were also disjoint from loci engaged in reading the first premise of arguments, except for minimal overlap in anterior insula, in Experiment I, and in the left posterior parietal cortex (BA 7), in Experiment II. The overlapping clusters are small and fail to replicate across the two experiments. BA 7

Conclusion

Our findings suggest that deduction is supported by a network of cortical loci distinct from areas classically associated with linguistic processing. Moreover, in conjunction with previous findings, the data provide evidence that deductive inference engages distinct content-independent versus content-dependent regions. The former include support areas that maintain the formal structure of arguments and core regions that operate over these structures. Content-dependent regions, on the other

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Functional neuroanatomy of deductive inference: A language-independent distributed network

Abstract

Section snippets

Subjects

Behavioral results

Functional brain activations (Experiment I)

Language and logic

Conclusion

NeuroImage

NeuroImage

NeuroImage

Cognition

NeuroImage

NeuroImage

Neurosychologia

Cognition

Cognition

NeuroImage

Neuropsychologia

Cortex

Neuropsychologia

Cortex

Neuropsychologia

NeuroImage

NeuroImage

Trends Neurosci.

Cogn. Brain Res.

NeuroImage

NeuroImage

Lingua

Brain Lang.

NeuroImage

Brain Res. Bull.

Brain Lang.

NeuroImage

Functional MRI of language: new approaches to understanding the cortical organization of semantic processing

Annu. Rev. Neurosci.

How we use rules to select actions: a review of evidence from cognitive neuroscience

Cogn. Affect. Behav. Neurosci.

Neural circuits subserving the retrieval and maintenance of abstract rules

J. Neurophysiol.

Neural circuitry underlying rule use in humans and nonhuman primates

J. Neurosci.

The gateway hypothesis of rostral prefrontal cortex (area 10) function

Atmosphere effect re-examined

J. Exp. Psychol.

Space and attention in parietal cortex

Annu. Rev. Neurosci.

A cortical representation of the local visual environment

Nature

Learning places from views: variation in scene processing as a function of experience and navigational ability

J. Cogn. Neurosci.

fMRI evidence for a three-stage model of deductive reasoning

J. Cogn. Neurosci.

Frontal lobes and human memory: insights from functional neuroimaging

Brain