Bootstrapping conceptual deduction using physical connection: rethinking frontal cortex.
The age at which infants can demonstrate the ability to deduce abstract rules can be reduced by more than half, from 21 months to 9 months. The key is to introduce a physical connection between the items to be conceptually related. I argue here that making the same change in how items are presented might also help some preschoolers with learning delays, especially some children with autism. I also suggest that the roles of premotor and ventrolateral prefrontal cortices in deducing abstract rules might have been misinterpreted behaviorally and anatomically. The crucial brain region may be the periarcuate, which partially overlaps both premotor and lateral prefrontal cortex. The cognitive ability made possible by this region might be something far more elementary than previously considered: the ability to perceive conceptual connections in the absence of physical connection.
Diamond
Adele
A
Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, 2255 Westbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6T 2A1. adele.diamond@ubc.edu
D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003210:Concept Formation / Q000502:physiology*; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology