title: Aristotle Meets Zeno: Psychophysiological Evidence.
abstract: This study, a tribute to Aristotle's 2400 years, used a juxtaposition of valid Aristotelian arguments to the paradoxes formulated by Zeno the Eleatic, in order to investigate the electrophysiological correlates of attentional and /or memory processing effects in the course of deductive reasoning. Participants undertook reasoning tasks based on visually presented arguments which were either (a) valid (Aristotelian) statements or (b) paradoxes. We compared brain activation patterns while participants maintained the premises / conclusions of either the valid statements or the paradoxes in working memory (WM). Event-related brain potentials (ERPs), specifically the P300 component of ERPs, were recorded during the WM phase, during which participants were required to draw a logical conclusion regarding the correctness of the valid syllogisms or the paradoxes. During the processing of paradoxes, results demonstrated a more positive event-related potential deflection (P300) across frontal regions, whereas processing of valid statements was associated with noticeable P300 amplitudes across parieto-occipital regions. These findings suggest that paradoxes mobilize frontal attention mechanisms, while valid deduction promotes parieto-occipital activity associated with attention and/or subsequent memory processing.
authors.affiliation: 1st Department of Psychiatry, Eginition Hospital, Athens, Greece.|University Mental Health Research Institute (UMHRI), Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Charalabos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Papageorgiou
authors.affiliation: 1st Department of Psychiatry, Eginition Hospital, Athens, Greece.|University Mental Health Research Institute (UMHRI), Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Xanthi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Stachtea
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Patras, Patras, Greece.
authors.forename: Panos
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Papageorgiou
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Patras, Patras, Greece.
authors.forename: Antonio T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Alexandridis
authors.affiliation: 1st Department of Psychiatry, Eginition Hospital, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Eleftheria
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tsaltas
authors.affiliation: 1st Department of Psychiatry, Eginition Hospital, Athens, Greece.|University Mental Health Research Institute (UMHRI), Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Elias
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Angelopoulos
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D058256:Brain Waves / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D018913:Event-Related Potentials, P300 / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008128:Logic; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D011603:Psychophysiology / Q000379:methods; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology*