title: Probing the Cognitive Mechanism of Mental Representational Change During Chunk Decomposition: A Parametric fMRI Study.
abstract: Chunk decomposition plays an important role in cognitive flexibility in particular with regards to representational change, which is critical for insight problem solving and creative thinking. In this study, we investigated the cognitive mechanism of decomposing Chinese character chunks through a parametric fMRI design. Our results from this parametric manipulation revealed widely distributed activations in frontal, parietal, and occipital cortex and negative activations in parietal and visual areas in response to chunk tightness during decomposition. To mentally manipulate the element of a given old chunk, superior parietal lobe appears to support element restructuring in a goal-directed way, whereas the negatively activated inferior parietal lobe may support preventing irrelevant objects from being attended. Moreover, determining alternative ways of restructuring requires a constellation of frontal areas in the cognitive control network, such as the right lateral prefrontal cortex in inhibiting the predominant chunk representations, the presupplementary motor area in initiating a transition of mental task set, and the inferior frontal junction in establishing task sets. In conclusion, this suggests that chunk decomposition reflects mental transformation of problem representation from an inappropriate state to a new one alongside with an evaluation of novel and insightful solutions by the caudate in the dorsal striatum.
authors.affiliation: College of Education, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China.
authors.forename: Xiaochen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Department of Prevention and Health Care, Shanghai Changzheng Hospital, The Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200003, China.
authors.forename: Jiaoyan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pang
authors.affiliation: Department Psychologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 80802 Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Qi-Yang
authors.initials: QY
authors.lastname: Nie
authors.affiliation: Department Psychologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 80802 Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Conci
authors.affiliation: College of Education, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China.
authors.forename: Junlong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition, Department of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Luo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011932:Reading; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Chinese character; caudate; inferior frontal junction; insight; presupplementary motor area