Shifting from the Perceptual Brain to the Logical Brain: The Neural Impact of Cognitive Inhibition Training

Abstract What happens in the human brain when the mind has to inhibit a perceptual process in order to activate a logical reasoning process? Here, we use functional imaging to show the networks of brain areas involved in a deductive logic task performed twice by the same subjects, first with a perceptual bias and then with a logical response following bias-inhibition training. The main finding is a striking shift in the cortical anatomy of reasoning from the posterior part of the brain (the ventral and dorsal pathways) to a left-prefrontal network including the middle-frontal gyrus, Broca's area, the anterior insula, and the pre-SMA. This result indicates that such brain shifting is an essential element for human access to logical thinking.

[1]  P C Wason,et al.  Reasoning about a Rule , 1968, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[2]  J. S. Evans,et al.  REASONING WITH NEGATIVES , 1972 .

[3]  O. Andy.  The prefrontal cortex: Anatomy, physiology and neuropsychology of the frontal lobe , 1981 .

[4]  B. Pillon,et al.  Human autonomy and the frontal lobes. Part I: Imitation and utilization behavior: A neuropsychological study of 75 patients , 1986, Annals of neurology.

[5]  J. Talairach,et al.  Co-Planar Stereotaxic Atlas of the Human Brain: 3-Dimensional Proportional System: An Approach to Cerebral Imaging , 1988 .

[6]  David LaBerge,et al.  Thalamic and Cortical Mechanisms of Attention Suggested by Recent Positron Emission Tomographic Experiments , 1990, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[7]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  A direct demonstration of functional specialization in human visual cortex , 1991, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[8]  Leslie G. Ungerleider,et al.  Dissociation of object and spatial visual processing pathways in human extrastriate cortex. , 1991, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[9]  M. Oaksford,et al.  Reasoning with conditionals containing negated constituents. , 1992, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[10]  M. Oaksford,et al.  Reasoning with conditionals containing negated constituents. , 1992 .

[11]  J. Mazziotta,et al.  Rapid Automated Algorithm for Aligning and Reslicing PET Images , 1992, Journal of computer assisted tomography.

[12]  P E Roland,et al.  Visual form discrimination from color or motion cues: functional anatomy by positron emission tomography. , 1994, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[13]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  Statistical parametric maps in functional imaging: A general linear approach , 1994 .

[14]  Sean A. Spence,et al.  Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain , 1995 .

[15]  D. Bjorklund,et al.  The evolution of inhibition mechanisms and their role in human cognition and behavior , 1995 .

[16]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  Spatial registration and normalization of images , 1995 .

[17]  F. N. Dempster,et al.  Interference and inhibition in cognition: An historical perspective , 1995 .

[18]  Richard S. J. Frackowiak,et al.  Functional anatomy of a common semantic system for words and pictures , 1996, Nature.

[19]  O. Houdé,et al.  Deductive reasoning and experimental inhibition training : the case of the matching bias , 1996 .

[20]  R. Dolan,et al.  Neural systems engaged by planning: a PET study of the Tower of London task , 1996, Neuropsychologia.

[21]  Leslie G. Ungerleider,et al.  Neural correlates of category-specific knowledge , 1996, Nature.

[22]  Cathy J. Price,et al.  Functional anatomy of reading , 2003 .

[23]  O. Houdé.  THE PROBLEM OF DEDUCTIVE COMPETENCE AND THE INHIBITORY CONTROL OF COGNITION , 1997 .

[24]  M. Farah,et al.  Role of left inferior prefrontal cortex in retrieval of semantic knowledge: a reevaluation. , 1997, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[25]  A. Owen.  The Functional Organization of Working Memory Processes Within Human Lateral Frontal Cortex: The Contribution of Functional Neuroimaging , 1997, The European journal of neuroscience.

[26]  S. Kapur,et al.  The seats of reason? An imaging study of deductive and inductive reasoning , 1997, Neuroreport.

[27]  Leslie G. Ungerleider,et al.  Mechanisms of directed attention in the human extrastriate cortex as revealed by functional MRI. , 1998, Science.

[28]  H. Damasio,et al.  Dissociation Of Working Memory from Decision Making within the Human Prefrontal Cortex , 1998, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[29]  M. Mesulam,et al.  From sensation to cognition. , 1998, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[30]  Leslie G. Ungerleider,et al.  Sustained Activity in the Medial Wall during Working Memory Delays , 1998, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[31]  Jonathan St. B. T. Evans,et al.  Matching bias in conditional reasoning : Do we understand it after 25 years ? , 1998 .

[32]  M. Posner,et al.  Attention, self-regulation and consciousness. , 1998, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[33]  Y. Miyashita,et al.  Transient activation of inferior prefrontal cortex during cognitive set shifting , 1998, Nature Neuroscience.

[34]  T. Paus,et al.  Regional differences in the effects of task difficulty and motor output on blood flow response in the human anterior cingulate cortex: a review of 107 PET activation studies , 1998, Neuroreport.

[35]  Jordan Grafman,et al.  Cognitive and AI models of reasoning , 1998, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[36]  Vinod Goel,et al.  Neuroanatomical Correlates of Human Reasoning , 1998, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[37]  J. Jonides,et al.  Inhibition in verbal working memory revealed by brain activation. , 1998, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[38]  J. Fuster,et al.  Linkage at the Top , 1998, Neuron.

[39]  C. Frith,et al.  Orbitofrontal cortex is activated during breaches of expectation in tasks of visual attention , 1999, Nature Neuroscience.

[40]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  Segregating the functions of human hippocampus. , 1999, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[41]  J. Jonides,et al.  Storage and executive processes in the frontal lobes. , 1999, Science.

[42]  S. Petersen,et al.  Frontal cortex contributes to human memory formation , 1999, Nature Neuroscience.

[43]  Olivier Houdé,et al.  Inhibition and cognitive development: object, number, categorization, and reasoning , 2000 .