title: An illustrated heuristic prototype facilitates scientific inventive problem solving: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study.
abstract: Many scientific inventions (SI) throughout history were inspired by heuristic prototypes (HPs). For instance, an event or piece of knowledge similar to displaced water from a tub inspired Archimedes' principle. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this insightful problem solving are not very clear. Thus, the present study explored the neural correlates used to solve SI problems facilitated by HPs. Each HP had two versions: a literal description with an illustration (LDI) and a literal description with no illustration (LDNI). Thirty-two participants were divided randomly into these two groups. Blood oxygenation level-dependent fMRI contrasts between LDI and LDNI groups were measured. Greater activity in the right middle occipital gyrus (RMOG, BA19), right precentral gyrus (RPCG, BA4), and left middle frontal gyrus (LMFG, BA46) were found within the LDI group as compared to the LDNI group. We discuss these results in terms cognitive functions within these regions related to problem solving and memory retrieval.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, PR China; School of Psychology, Southwest University (SWU), Chongqing 400715, PR China.
authors.forename: Dandan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.affiliation: Mental Health Department of Jining Meidical University, Jining, Shandong Province 272013, PR China.
authors.forename: Wenfu
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Management School of University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, PR China.
authors.forename: Chaoying
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, PR China; School of Psychology, Southwest University (SWU), Chongqing 400715, PR China.
authors.forename: Wenjing
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, PR China; School of Psychology, Southwest University (SWU), Chongqing 400715, PR China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, PR China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, Henan 453003, PR China.
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, PR China; School of Psychology, Southwest University (SWU), Chongqing 400715, PR China.
authors.forename: Jiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, PR China; School of Psychology, Southwest University (SWU), Chongqing 400715, PR China. Electronic address: yijunliu@ufl.edu.
authors.forename: Yijun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, PR China; School of Psychology, Southwest University (SWU), Chongqing 400715, PR China. Electronic address: zhangql@swu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Qinglin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D000066506:Heuristics / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Heuristic prototypes; Scientific invention; Visual image; fMRI