Shifting from the perceptual brain to the logical brain: the neural impact of cognitive inhibition training

J Cogn Neurosci. 2000 Sep;12(5):721-8. doi: 10.1162/089892900562525.

Abstract

What happens in the human brain when the mind has to inhibit a perceptual process in order to activate a logical reasoning process? Here, we use functional imaging to show the networks of brain areas involved in a deductive logic task performed twice by the same subjects, first with a perceptual bias and then with a logical response following bias-inhibition training. The main finding is a striking shift in the cortical anatomy of reasoning from the posterior part of the brain (the ventral and dorsal pathways) to a left-prefrontal network including the middle-frontal gyrus, Broca's area, the anterior insula, and the pre-SMA. This result indicates that such brain shifting is an essential element for human access to logical thinking.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Brain / diagnostic imaging
  • Brain / physiology*
  • Brain Mapping
  • Cognition / physiology
  • Humans
  • Logic*
  • Male
  • Perception / physiology*
  • Psychology / methods
  • Thinking / physiology*
  • Tomography, Emission-Computed