title: Uncertain relational reasoning in the parietal cortex.
abstract: The psychology of reasoning is currently transitioning from the study of deductive inferences under certainty to inferences that have degrees of uncertainty in both their premises and conclusions; however, only a few studies have explored the cortical basis of uncertain reasoning. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), we show that areas in the right superior parietal lobe (rSPL) are necessary for solving spatial relational reasoning problems under conditions of uncertainty. Twenty-four participants had to decide whether a single presented order of objects agreed with a given set of indeterminate premises that could be interpreted in more than one way. During the presentation of the order, 10-Hz TMS was applied over the rSPL or a sham control site. Right SPL TMS during the inference phase disrupted performance in uncertain relational reasoning. Moreover, we found differences in the error rates between preferred mental models, alternative models, and inconsistent models. Our results suggest that different mechanisms are involved when people reason spatially and evaluate different kinds of uncertain conclusions.
authors.affiliation: University of Giessen, Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Science, Germany; University of Freiburg, Technical Faculty, Germany. Electronic address: ragni@cs.uni-freiburg.de.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ragni
authors.affiliation: University of Freiburg, Dept. of Cognitive Science, Germany.
authors.forename: Imke
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Franzmeier
authors.affiliation: University of Freiburg, Dept. of Cognitive Science, Germany; Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Freiburg Brain Imaging, Germany.
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Maier
authors.affiliation: University of Giessen, Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Science, Germany.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Knauff
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008128:Logic; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D011340:Problem Solving; D013850:Thinking; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation; D035501:Uncertainty; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Mental models; Relational reasoning; Spatial reasoning; Superior parietal lobe; Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS); Uncertain reasoning