Divergent hemispheric reasoning strategies: reducing uncertainty versus resolving inconsistency

Personal Income Performance Correlates with Brain Structural Network Modularity but Not Intelligence Quotient

Introduction: This study aims to use diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in conjunction with brain graph techniques to define brain structural connectivity and investigate its association with personal income (PI) in individuals of various ages and intelligence quotients (IQ). Methods: MRI examinations were performed on 55 male subjects (mean age: 40.1 ± 9.4 years). Graph data and metrics were generated, and DTI images were analyzed using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS). All subjects underwent the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale for a reliable estimation of the full-scale IQ (FSIQ), which includes verbal comprehension index, perceptual reasoning index, working memory index, and processing speed index. The performance score was defined as the monthly PI normalized by the age of the subject. Results: The analysis of global graph metrics showed that modularity correlated positively with performance score (p = 0.003) and negatively with FSIQ (p = 0.04) and processing speed index (p = 0.005). No significant correlations were found between IQ indices and performance scores. Regional analysis of graph metrics showed modularity differences between right and left networks in sub-cortical (p = 0.001) and frontal (p = 0.044) networks. TBSS analysis showed greater axial and mean diffusivities in the high-performance group in correlation with their modular brain organization. Conclusion: This study showed that PI performance is strongly correlated with a modular organization of brain structural connectivity, which implies short and rapid networks, providing automatic and unconscious brain processing. Additionally, the lack of correlation between performance and IQ suggests a reduced role of academic reasoning skills in performance to the advantage of high uncertainty decision-making networks.

Altered connectivity between the central executive network and the salience network in delusion-prone individuals: A resting state eLORETA report

Although the Triple Network (TN) model has been proposed as a valid neurophysiological framework for conceptualizing delusion-like experiences, the neurodynamics of TN in relation to delusion proneness have been relatively understudied in nonclinical samples so far. Therefore, the main aim of the current study was to investigate the functional connectivity of resting state electroencephalography (EEG) in subjects with high levels of delusion proneness. Twenty-one delusion-prone (DP) individuals and thirty-seven non-delusion prone (N-DP) individuals were included in the study. The exact Low-Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography (eLORETA) software was used for all EEG analyses. Compared to N-DP participants, DP individuals showed an increas of theta connectivity (T = 3.618; p = 0.045) between the Salience Network (i.e., the left anterior insula) and the Central Executive Network (i.e., the left posterior parietal cortex). Increased theta connectivity was also positively correlated with the frequency of delusional experiences (rho = 0.317; p = 0.015). Our results suggest that increased theta connectivity between the Salience Network and the Central Executive Network may underline brain correlates of altered resting state salience detection, information processing, and cognitive control processes typical of delusional thinking.

Right BA 10 lesions impair performance on real-world planning but are not sensitive to problem novelty or tower tasks

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is associated with many cognitive functions, including planning. In the neuropsychology literature planning is reduced to "look ahead" ability and most extensively studied with the "tower" tasks. The most influential theoretical explanation is that planning is required in the absence of a routine solution and PFC patients have difficulty coping with novelty. There is an alternate view of planning that emphasizes the distinction between real world tasks and laboratory tower tasks. This account focuses on the structure of problem spaces and why patients with lesions to right PFC have difficulty navigating ill-structured problem spaces. To further explore these issues we administered two real world travel planning tasks to 56 Vietnam War veterans with penetrating brain lesions and 14 matched normal controls. One planning task involved familiar knowledge while the other involved knowledge unfamiliar to our participants. Participants also completed the D-KEFS tower task. A subset of 18 patients-with lesions to right anterior prefrontal cortex (BA 10)-were impaired in the travel planning task compared to normal controls. The task familiarity/novelty dimension affected performance across participant groups (familiar-task scores were higher than unfamiliar-task scores), but it did not differentially affect any group. An examination of cognitive strategies utilized by participants revealed that the impaired patient group had difficulty maintaining a sufficient level of abstraction and engaged the task at a much more concrete level than other participants. Interestingly, patients impaired in the real-world planning tasks were not impaired in the tower tasks. We conclude that patients with lesions to right BA 10 have difficulty in real-world planning tasks that can be attributed to difficulties in engaging problems at the appropriate level of abstraction.

Robust associations between white matter microstructure and general intelligence

Few tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) studies have investigated the relations between intelligence and white matter microstructure in healthy (young) adults, and those have yielded mixed observations, yet white matter is fundamental for efficient and accurate information transfer throughout the human brain. We used a multicenter approach to identify white matter regions that show replicable structure-function associations, employing data from 4 independent samples comprising over 2000 healthy participants. TBSS indicated 188 voxels exhibited significant positive associations between g factor scores and fractional anisotropy (FA) in all 4 data sets. Replicable voxels formed 3 clusters, located around the left-hemispheric forceps minor, superior longitudinal fasciculus, and cingulum-cingulate gyrus with extensions into their surrounding areas (anterior thalamic radiation, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus). Our results suggested that individual differences in general intelligence are robustly associated with white matter FA in specific fiber bundles distributed across the brain, consistent with the Parieto-Frontal Integration Theory of intelligence. Three possible reasons higher FA values might create links with higher g are faster information processing due to greater myelination, more direct information processing due to parallel, homogenous fiber orientation distributions, or more parallel information processing due to greater axon density.

Think Hard or Think Smart: Network Reconfigurations After Divergent Thinking Associate With Creativity Performance

Evidence suggests divergent thinking is the cognitive basis of creative thoughts. Neuroimaging literature using resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) has revealed network reorganizations during divergent thinking. Recent studies have revealed the changes of network organizations when performing creativity tasks, but such brain reconfigurations may be prolonged after task and be modulated by the trait of creativity. To investigate the dynamic reconfiguration, 40 young participants were recruited to perform consecutive Alternative Uses Tasks (AUTs) for divergent thinking and two resting-state scans (before and after AUT) were used for mapping the brain reorganizations after AUT. We split participants into high- and low-creative groups based on creative achievement questionnaire (CAQ) and targeted on reconfigurations of the two brain networks: (1) default-mode network (DMN) and (2) the network seeded at the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) because the between-group difference of AUT-induced brain activation located at the left IFG. The changes of post-AUT RSFCs (DMN and IFGN) indicated the prolonged effect of divergent thinking. More specifically, the alterations of RSFC_IFG−AG and RSFC_IFG−IPL (AG: angular gyrus, IPG: inferior parietal lobule) in the high-creative group had positive relationship with their AUT performances (originality and fluency), but not found in the low-creative group. Furthermore, the RSFC changes of DMN did not present significant relationships with AUT performances. The findings not only confirmed the possibility of brain dynamic reconfiguration following divergent thinking, but also suggested the distinct IFGN reconfiguration between individuals with different creativity levels.

Insights into visual working memory precision at the feature- and object-level from a hemispheric encoding manipulation

Mnemonic precision is an important aspect of visual working memory (WM). Here, we probed mechanisms that affect precision for spatial (size) and non-spatial (colour) features of an object, and whether these features are encoded and/or stored separately in WM. We probed precision at the feature-level—that is, whether different features of a single object are represented separately or together in WM—and the object-level—that is, whether different features across a set of sequentially presented objects are represented in the same or different WM stores. By manipulating whether stimuli were encoded by the left and/or right hemisphere, we gained further insights into how objects are represented in WM. At the feature-level, we tested whether recall fidelity for the two features of an object fluctuated in tandem from trial to trial. We observed no significant coupling under either central or lateralized encoding, supporting the claim of parallel feature channels at encoding. At the level of WM storage of a set of objects, we found asymmetric feature interference under central encoding, whereby an increase in colour load led to a decrease in size precision. When objects were encoded by a single hemisphere, however, we found largely independent feature stores. Precision for size was more resistant to interference from the size of another object under right-hemisphere encoding; by contrast, precision for colour did not differ across hemispheres, suggesting a more distributed WM store. These findings suggest that distinct features of a single object are represented separately but are then partially integrated during maintenance of a set of sequentially presented objects.

Functional Cerebral Specialization and Decision Making in the Iowa Gambling Task: A Single-Case Study of Left-Hemispheric Atrophy and Hemispherotomy

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is a decision-making task that preferentially involves the right prefrontal cortex (PFC). However, the performance of the task is driven by two attributes: intertemporal (long vs. short-term) and frequency-based processing of rewards-punishments, and differs over the two phases of uncertainty (early trials) and risk (later trials). Although intertemporal decision making involves the right PFC, the extent of hemispheric specialization in attribute and phase-specific decision making is unknown. Therefore, the current study assessed decision making in a patient with a uni-hemispheric disease, who underwent hemispherotomy surgery, comparing pre-surgical IGT performance (3 days prior to surgery) with post-surgical performance (1 month, and 12 months post-surgery). The patient’s pre- and post-surgical IGT performances were analyzed to examine changes in attribute and phase-specific decision making, including the widely reported deck B phenomenon. The results for the two attributes of deck selection at the pre- and post-surgical assessments suggested marked changes in the two IGT phases of risk and uncertainty. Pre-surgery, the patient made more intertemporally disadvantageous choices, and task-progression contributed to it; within 1 month of surgery, intertemporal disadvantageous deck choices were contingent on task progression, after 1 year, disadvantageous choices were independent of task progression. Intertemporal attribute alteration was unresponsive to uncertainty and risk phase. The effect of task progression on frequency attribute remained unchanged before and immediately after the surgery, and preference for infrequent decks was observed only after 1 year. Further, pre and post surgery alteration in frequency attribute was phase-specific: within 1 month of surgery, infrequent deck choices decreased in uncertainty and increased in risk, whereas the reverse was observed after 12 months. Deck B choice increase was in the uncertainty phase. Results are discussed in reference to valence-linked hemispheric specialization and its potential role in attribute and phase-specific IGT decision making.

Patients with Lesions to Left Prefrontal Cortex (BA 9 and BA 10) Have Less Entrenched Beliefs and Are More Skeptical Reasoners

The effect of prior beliefs on reasoning and decision-making is a robust, poorly understood phenomenon, exhibiting considerable individual variation. Neuroimaging studies widely show the involvement of the left pFC in reasoning involving beliefs. However, little patient data exist to speak to the necessity and role of the left pFC in belief-based inference. To address this shortcoming, we tested 102 patients with unilateral focal penetrating traumatic brain injuries and 49 matched controls. Participants provided plausibility ratings (plausible/implausible) to simple inductive arguments and (separately) strength of believability ratings of the conclusion to those same arguments. A voxel-based lesion symptom mapping analysis identified 10 patients, all with lesions to the left pFC (BA 9 and BA 10) as rating significantly fewer arguments with highly believable conclusions as "plausible," compared with all other patients. Subsequent analyses, incorporating the right hemisphere homologue of these patients (n = 12) and normal controls (n = 24), revealed patients with lesions to left pFC found fewer arguments plausible in the high believable than either of these groups, and there was no difference in the behavioral scores of the right pFC patients and normal controls. Further analysis, utilizing the belief ratings as the dependent measure, revealed a Group × Belief Rating interaction, with left pFC patients having less intense beliefs about the conclusions of moderately believable and highly believable arguments. We interpreted these results to indicate that lesions to left pFC (BA 9, BA 10) increase incredulity and make these patients more skeptical reasoners. The former can partially, but not fully, explain the latter. The other relevant factor may be that unilateral left pFC lesions disrupt hemispheric equilibrium and allow for an increased inhibitory role of the right pFC. We speculate that individual differences in belief bias in reasoning in the normal population may be a function of individual differences in the left and right pFC interactional dynamics.

Hemispheric asymmetry in the prefrontal cortex for complex cognition

With the exception of language, hemispheric asymmetry has not historically been an important issue in the frontal lobe literature. Data generated over the past 20 years is forcing a reconsideration of this position. There is now considerable evidence to suggest that the left prefrontal cortex is an inference engine that automatically makes simple conceptual, logical, and causal connections to fill in missing information and eliminate uncertainty or indeterminacy. This is a fine-tuning of the "left hemisphere interpreter" account from the callosotomy patient literature. What is new is an understanding of the important contributions of the right prefrontal cortex to formal logical inference, conflict detection, and indeterminacy tolerance and maintenance. This chapter articulates these claims and reviews the data on which they are based. The chapter concludes by speculating that the inference capabilities of the left prefrontal cortex are built into the very fabric of language and can be accounted for by the left hemisphere dominance for language. The roles of the right PFC require multiple mechanisms for explanation. Its role in formal inference may be a function of its visual-spatial processing capabilities. Its role in conflict detection may be explained as a system for checking for consistency between existing beliefs and new information coming into the system and inferences drawn from beliefs and/or new information. There are at least three possible mechanisms to account for its role in indeterminacy tolerance. First, it could contain a representational system with properties very different from those of language, and an accompanying inference engine. Second, it could just contain this different representational system, and the information is at some point passed back to the left prefrontal cortex for inference. Third, the role of the right prefrontal cortex may be largely preventative. That is, it doesn't provide alternative representational and inference capabilities but simply prevents the left prefrontal cortex from settling on initial, local inferences. The current data do not allow differentiating between these possibilities. Successful real-world functioning requires the participation of both hemispheres.

A leftward perceptual asymmetry when judging the attractiveness of visual patterns

Perceptual judgements concerning the magnitude of a stimulus feature are typically influenced more by the left side of the stimulus than by the right side. This research examined whether the leftward bias also applies to judgements of the attractiveness of abstract visual patterns. Across four experiments participants chose between two versions of a stimulus which either had an attractive left side or an attractive right side. Experiments 1 and 2 presented artworks and experiments 3 and 4 presented wallpaper designs. In each experiment participants showed a significant bias to choose the stimulus with an attractive left side more than the stimulus with an attractive right side. The leftward bias emerged at age 10/11, was not caused by a systematic asymmetry in the perception of colourfulness or complexity, and was stronger when the difference in attractiveness between the left and right sides was larger. The results are relevant to the aesthetics of product and packaging design and show that leftward biases extend to the perceptual judgement of everyday items. Possible causes of the leftward bias for attractiveness judgements are discussed and it is suggested that the size of the bias may not be a measure of the degree of hemispheric specialization.

Hemispheric Differences in White Matter Microstructure between Two Profiles of Children with High Intelligence Quotient vs. Controls: A Tract-Based Spatial Statistics Study

Objectives: The main goal of this study was to investigate and compare the neural substrate of two children's profiles of high intelligence quotient (HIQ). Methods: Two groups of HIQ children were included with either a homogeneous (Hom-HIQ: n = 20) or a heterogeneous IQ profile (Het-HIQ: n = 24) as defined by a significant difference between verbal comprehension index and perceptual reasoning index. Diffusion tensor imaging was used to assess white matter (WM) microstructure while tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) analysis was performed to detect and localize WM regional differences in fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity, axial (AD), and radial diffusivities. Quantitative measurements were performed on 48 regions and 21 fiber-bundles of WM. Results: Hom-HIQ children presented higher FA than Het-HIQ children in widespread WM regions including central structures, and associative intra-hemispheric WM fasciculi. AD was also greater in numerous WM regions of Total-HIQ, Hom-HIQ, and Het-HIQ groups when compared to the Control group. Hom-HIQ and Het-HIQ groups also differed by their hemispheric lateralization in AD differences compared to Controls. Het-HIQ and Hom-HIQ groups showed a lateralization ratio (left/right) of 1.38 and 0.78, respectively. Conclusions: These findings suggest that both inter- and intra-hemispheric WM integrity are enhanced in HIQ children and that neural substrate differs between Hom-HIQ and Het-HIQ. The left hemispheric lateralization of Het-HIQ children is concordant with their higher verbal index while the relative right hemispheric lateralization of Hom-HIQ children is concordant with their global brain processing and adaptation capacities as evidenced by their homogeneous IQ.

Hemispheric lateralization in reasoning

A growing body of evidence suggests that reasoning in humans relies on a number of related processes whose neural loci are largely lateralized to one hemisphere or the other. A recent review of this evidence concluded that the patterns of lateralization observed are organized according to two complementary tendencies. The left hemisphere attempts to reduce uncertainty by drawing inferences or creating explanations, even at the cost of ignoring conflicting evidence or generating implausible explanations. Conversely, the right hemisphere aims to reduce conflict by rejecting or refining explanations that are no longer tenable in the face of new evidence. In healthy adults, the hemispheres work together to achieve a balance between certainty and consistency, and a wealth of neuropsychological research supports the notion that upsetting this balance results in various failures in reasoning, including delusions. However, support for this model from the neuroimaging literature is mixed. Here, we examine the evidence for this framework from multiple research domains, including an activation likelihood estimation analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies of reasoning. Our results suggest a need to either revise this model as it applies to healthy adults or to develop better tools for assessing lateralization in these individuals.

Indeterminacy tolerance as a basis of hemispheric asymmetry within prefrontal cortex

There is an important hemispheric distinction in the functional organization of prefrontal cortex (PFC) that has not been fully recognized and explored. Research with split-brain patients provides considerable evidence for a left hemisphere (LH) “interpreter” that abhors indeterminacy and automatically draws inferences to complete patterns (real or imaginary). It is suggested that this “interpreter” function may be a byproduct of the linguistic capabilities of the LH. This same literature initially limited the role of the right hemisphere (RH) to little more than visual organization. Recent reviews have garnered evidence for several different roles for the right PFC in reasoning, problem solving, and decision-making. We here focus on the beneficial but neglected role of indeterminacy in real-world problem solving and argue that the right PFC complements the left PFC “interpreter” by maintaining, and even enhancing indeterminacy. Successful real-world functioning is a delicate balancing act between these two systems.

Hemispheric differences in relational reasoning: novel insights based on an old technique

Relational reasoning, or the ability to integrate multiple mental relations to arrive at a logical conclusion, is a critical component of higher cognition. A bilateral brain network involving lateral prefrontal and parietal cortices has been consistently implicated in relational reasoning. Some data suggest a preferential role for the left hemisphere in this form of reasoning, whereas others suggest that the two hemispheres make important contributions. To test for a hemispheric asymmetry in relational reasoning, we made use of an old technique known as visual half-field stimulus presentation to manipulate whether stimuli were presented briefly to one hemisphere or the other. Across two experiments, 54 neurologically healthy young adults performed a visuospatial transitive inference task. Pairs of colored shapes were presented rapidly in either the left or right visual hemifield as participants maintained central fixation, thereby isolating initial encoding to the contralateral hemisphere. We observed a left-hemisphere advantage for encoding a series of ordered visuospatial relations, but both hemispheres contributed equally to task performance when the relations were presented out of order. To our knowledge, this is the first study to reveal hemispheric differences in relational encoding in the intact brain. We discuss these findings in the context of a rich literature on hemispheric asymmetries in cognition.