2006 Summer School, Sofia, Bulgaria Cognitive Neuroscience of Thought Kalina Christoff Goal-directed Thought The Contribution of ateral Prefrontal Cortex How do we think about goal-directed thought? A set of distinct component processes can be described fairly precisely psychological nature neural basis are organized by particular principles sfg 9 9/46 46 mfg 10 45 ifg 47/12 VPFC ostrolateral prefrontal cortex Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex Ventrolateral prefrontal cortex elational Complexity Framework (Halford et al., 1984) The ability of relational integration evel 0: evel 1: evel 2: 0 relations must be considered 1 relation must be considered 2 relations must be considered relational integration Occurs late in child development (Halford, 1984) Unique to humans (Tomasello & Call, 1997) inked to prefrontal cortex (obin & Holyoak, 1995) Specific deficit with frontal lesions (Waltz et al., 1999) 2006 Summer School, Sofia, Bulgaria 1
aven s Progressive Matrices 0-relational aven s Progressive Matrices 1-relational aven s Progressive Matrices Event-related Design 2-relational fmi acquisition Parameters 1.5 T GE Signa scanner T = 2 s 16 axial slices 7 mm slice thickness no spacing between slices spiral pulse sequence bite-bar 10 participants Event-related Design Functional analysis SPM 99b random effects model 2006 Summer School, Sofia, Bulgaria 2
Behavioral Performance Two Different Sources of Activation 100% Percent Accurate 0% Mean Accuracy 99.6% 96.7% 85.0% 0-rel 1-rel 2-rel Problem Type T (sec) Mean esponse Time (T) 5.66 6 5 4.19 4 2.78 3 2 1 0 0-rel 1-rel 2-rel Problem Type Novel processes Shared processes Condition A Proc1 Proc2 Proc3 Condition A Proc1 Proc2 Proc3 vs. Proc2 Proc3 Condition B Condition B Proc1 vs. Proc2 Proc3 A vs. B Study 1: elational Integration during easoning elational Integration during easoning Modeling the Hemodynamic esponse Fixed HF Traditional modeling approach: Fixed HF 1 rel > 0 rel egressor functions based on the canonical HF 2 rel > 1 rel Study 1: elational Integration during easoning Modeling the Hemodynamic esponse An alternative approach: T-Convolved HF T-convolved HF 1 rel > 0 rel T-based box-car function 2.36 s 3.29 s 4.91 s 4.17 s 2.79 s 3.85 s egressor function after convolving 2 rel > 1 rel Study 1: elational Integration during easoning 2006 Summer School, Sofia, Bulgaria 3
Fixed HF Anatomical egions of Interest 2 rel > 1 rel 2 rel > 1 rel T-convolved HF Study 1: elational Integration during easoning All Trials T-Matched Trials Only (BA10) (BA10) (BA46) Trials matched for response time and accuracy N problems Mean T (±S.D.) 0-rel 36 4.05 sec (±0.68) z = 4 (BA9) 1-rel 36 4.07 sec (±0.70) 2-rel 36 4.07 sec (±0.66) Average time course 0-relational 1-relational 2-relational z = 32 Study 1: elational Integration during easoning T-Matched Trials Only T-Matched Trials Only MFG BA10 MFG BA10 MFG BA10 BA46 z = 4 z = 4 MFG BA9 Average time course Average time course 0-relational 0-relational 1-relational 1-relational 2-relational z = 32 2-relational z = 32 2006 Summer School, Sofia, Bulgaria 4
elational integration recruited & regions greatest specificity Activated across wide range of domains reasoning and problem solving working memory memory retrieval attention Domain-independent functions working with the products of ones own thought processes introspective thought meta-cognitive representation VPFC Activated during tasks at the highest level of cognitive complexity Is its recruitment always hierarchical? est vs Arrows Mental processes during rest VPFC 2006 Summer School, Sofia, Bulgaria 5
Different levels of abstraction in thinking Thought processes performed upon information that is Highly abstract Executive processes: abstract vs. concrete information Computational models of prefrontal function (O eilly et al., 2002) VPFC elatively abstract elatively concrete Developmental models of executive functions (Zelazo et al., 1999, 2004) Continuum Patterns of connectivity Pandya & Barnes (1987) edness ed Car ed BMW Your own BMW ostrocaudal (anterior-to-posterior) gradient: More anterior PFC regions are connected to areas of increasing order of association in posterior cortices. Solving Anagrams A P e a l p D n c a e D k e s 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 ness ratings for nouns H m a r T p i r F o do Paivio et al. (1968), MC Psycholinguistic Database (Wilson, 1988) G a c r e S n g o B O l t e t Christoff, Keramatian et al. (in prep) 2006 Summer School, Sofia, Bulgaria 6
Solving Anagrams Instructions (2 sec) A P e a l p (Appeal) H m a r (Harm) D n c a e (Dance) T p i r (Trip) D k e s (Desk) F o do (Food) Stimuli (4 sec each) W h i s (wish) F v e r e (fever) 8 stimuli per block, 12 blocks per condition B k n a (bank) G a c r e (Grace) S n g o (Song) B O l t e t (Bottle) conditions matched for word frequency (M=53) word length (M=5.37) number of syllables (M=1.5) difficulty ness or Complexity fmi acquisition evel of abstraction evel of difficulty evel of difficulty eaction time Volume Slices Number of errors Behavioral Pilot Study eaction Times Accuracy D e c a n D a c e n D a n e c Dance Mean T (ms) Mean Accuracy (%) Very difficult Fairly difficult Easy Solution 1629.7 ms 1667.2 ms 1667.7 ms 60.5% 59.1% 60.3% Christoff, Keramatian et al. (in prep) 2006 Summer School, Sofia, Bulgaria 7
sfg 9 9/46 [abs vs. (con+med)/2] [med vs. (abs+con)/2] [con vs. (abs+med)/2] 46 mfg 10 45 ifg 47/12 (BA10/46) (BA 9/46) VPFC (BA 47/11) VPFC Christoff, Keramatian et al. (in prep) Hierarchical Complexity dependent Parallel evels of abstraction 2006 Summer School, Sofia, Bulgaria 8