title: What MEG can reveal about inference making: the case of if...then sentences.
abstract: Characterizing the neural substrate of reasoning has been investigated with regularity over the last 10 years or so while relying on measures that come primarily from positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging. To some extent, these techniques—as well as those from electroencephalography—have shown that time course is equally worthwhile for revealing the way reasoning processes work in the brain. In this work, we employ magnetoencephalography while investigating Modus Ponens (If P then Q; P//Therefore, Q) in order to simultaneously derive time course and the source of this fundamental logical inference. The present results show that conditional reasoning involves several successive cognitive processes, each of which engages a distinct cerebral network over the course of inference making, and as soon as a conditional sentence is processed.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire sur le Langage, le Cerveau et la Cognition (L2C2), CNRS-University of Lyon 1,67 Boulevard Pinel, 69675 Bron, France. m.bonnefond@fcdonders.ru.nl
authors.forename: Mathilde
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bonnefond
authors.forename: Ira
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Noveck
authors.forename: Sylvain
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Baillet
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cheylus
authors.forename: Claude
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Delpuech
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bertrand
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fourneret
authors.forename: Jean-Baptiste
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Van der Henst
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008128:Logic; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D015225:Magnetoencephalography; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011340:Problem Solving; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012660:Semantics; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult