Shifting from the perceptual brain to the logical brain: the neural impact of cognitive inhibition training.
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.
Houdé
O
O
CNRS-CEA, University of Caen, University René-Descartes, and University Institute of France.
Zago
L
L
Mellet
E
E
Moutier
S
S
Pineau
A
A
Mazoyer
B
B
Tzourio-Mazoyer
N
N
D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008128:Logic; D008297:Male; D010465:Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D011584:Psychology / Q000379:methods; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology*; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed