Transitive Inference: Distinct Contributions of Rostrolateral Prefrontal Cortex and the Hippocampus

Abstract

The capacity to reason about complex information is a central characteristic of human cognition. An important component of many reasoning tasks is the need to integrate multiple mental relations. Several researchers have argued that rostrolateral prefrontal cortex (RLPFC) plays a key role in relational integration. If this hypothesis is correct, then RLPFC should play a key role in transitive inference, which requires the integration of multiple relations to reach a conclusion. Thus far, however, neuroscientific research on transitive inference has focused primarily on the hippocampus. In this fMRI study, we sought to compare the roles of RLPFC and the hippocampus on a novel transitive inference paradigm. Four relations between colored balls were presented on the screen together with a target relation. Participants were asked to decide whether the target relation was correct, given the other indicated relations between balls. RLPFC, but not the hippocampus, exhibited stronger activation on trials that required relational integration as compared with trials that involved relational encoding without integration. In contrast, the hippocampus exhibited a pattern consistent with a role in relational encoding, with stronger activation on trials requiring encoding of relational predicate–argument structure as compared with trials requiring encoding of item–item associations. Functional connectivity analyses give rise to the hypothesis that RLPFC draws on hippocampal representations of mental relations during the process of relational integration.

Neurodevelopment of relational reasoning: Implications for mathematical pedagogy

“…In contrast, activity in prefrontal cortex increases when secondorder relations must be integrated [36,35]. These findings and many others (e.g., [37,38]) have implicated the prefrontal cortex -or, more specifically, rostrolateral prefrontal cortex (RLPFC) -in higher-order relational reasoning.…”

“…Further, lateral parietal cortex is engaged more strongly when fMRI study participants represent ordered relations (e.g., x is larger than y) than associative relations (e.g., x and y are related) on a test of transitive inference [35] -i.e., when the nature of the relationships must be considered to solve the problem.…”

Four-Dimensional Consciousness

“…This is what might be expected if the PPC and PFC processed spacetime interval inequalities. Wendelken and Bunge (2010) found that the extraction of mental relations from the hippocampus by the PPC and PFC initiates an important process of relational integration. These studies support the contention that entorhinal cortex grid cells provide a reference grid in the hippocampus for the representation of spacetime interval inequalities and that the PPC and PFC may preferentially extract these in a process of relational integration.…”

The Role and Sources of Individual Differences in Critical-Analytic Thinking: a Capsule Overview

“…As such, the creation of dreams and simulations of future events occur because the MTL can uniquely construct events using knowledge of the past. Specific evidence that the hippocampus and MTL are involved in fluid reasoning has been shown in tasks of relational reasoning and making transitive inferences (Greene et al 2006;Wendelken and Bunge 2010). Thus, this system would be ideally involved in a fluid process, such as critical-analytic thinking, in which one must create or construct new knowledge from episodes and concepts stored in memory.…”

“…A neurobiological model of fluid reasoning has been proposed ) involving a network of brain regions: the left fronto-parietal system (including the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, DLPFC, and inferior parietal lobule, IPL) as well as the anterior pole of the frontal cortex known as the rostrolateral prefrontal cortex (RLPFC), which is thought to play a role in setting and executing complex abstract rules (Badre et al 2005;Koechlin and Summerfield 2007). These regions are ubiquitously activated across verbal and nonverbal analogy tasks ) and relational reasoning tasks (Wendelken and Bunge 2010), as well as matrix reasoning tasks (Crone et al 2009), yet the functions they subserve may be distinct.…”