title: Functional imaging of brain responses to different outcomes of hypothesis testing: revealed in a category induction task.
abstract: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine differences in brain activation that occur when a person receives the different outcomes of hypothesis testing (HT). Participants were provided with a series of images of batteries and were asked to learn a rule governing what kinds of batteries were charged. Within each trial, the first two charged batteries were sequentially displayed, and participants would generate a preliminary hypothesis based on the perceptual comparison. Next, a third battery that served to strengthen, reject, or was irrelevant to the preliminary hypothesis was displayed. The fMRI results revealed that (1) no significant differences in brain activation were found between the 2 hypothesis-maintain conditions (i.e., strengthen and irrelevant conditions); and (2) compared with the hypothesis-maintain conditions, the hypothesis-reject condition activated the left medial frontal cortex, bilateral putamen, left parietal cortex, and right cerebellum. These findings are discussed in terms of the neural correlates of the subcomponents of HT and working memory manipulation.
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Psychological Development and Education, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, China. Electronic address: lifh@foxmail.com.
authors.forename: Fuhong
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Psychological Development and Education, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, China.
authors.forename: Bihua
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Yuejia
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Psychological Development and Education, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lei
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Psychological Development and Education, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, China. Electronic address: lihongwrm@vip.sina.com.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Category induction; Hypothesis testing; Rejection; Working memory; fMRI