Morphometry of Left Frontal and Temporal Poles Predicts Analogical Reasoning Abilities
Cereb. Cortex. 2014-10-19; 26(3): 915-932
DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhu254
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1. Cereb Cortex. 2016 Mar;26(3):915-932. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhu254. Epub 2014 Oct
19.
Morphometry of Left Frontal and Temporal Poles Predicts Analogical Reasoning
Abilities.
Aichelburg C(1)(2)(3), Urbanski M(1)(2)(3)(4), Thiebaut de Schotten
M(1)(2)(3)(5), Humbert F(6), Levy R(1)(2)(3)(7), Volle E(1)(2)(3).
Author information:
(1)Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière (ICM), Université Pierre et Marie
Curie-Paris 6, 47 boulevard de l’hopital, 75013 Paris, France.
(2)Inserm, U 1127, 47 boulevard de l’hopital, 75013 Paris, France.
(3)CNRS, UMR 7225, 47 boulevard de l’hopital, 75013 Paris, France.
(4)Service de Médecine et Réadaptation, Hôpitaux de Saint-Maurice, 94410
Saint-Maurice, France.
(5)Natbrainlab, Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute
of Psychiatry, King’s College London, London WC2R 2LS, UK.
(6)Centre de Neuroimagerie de Recherche CENIR, ICM, Groupe Hospitalier
Pitié-Salpêtrière, 47 boulevard de l’hopital, 75013 Paris, France.
(7)Behavioral Neuropsychiatry Unit (UNPC), Neurology Ward, Salpetriere
Hospital-AP-HP, 47 boulevard de l’hopital, 75013 Paris, France.
Analogical reasoning is critical for making inferences and adapting to novelty.
It can be studied experimentally using tasks that require creating similarities
between situations or concepts, i.e., when their constituent elements share a
similar organization or structure. Brain correlates of analogical reasoning have
mostly been explored using functional imaging that has highlighted the
involvement of the left rostrolateral prefrontal cortex (rlPFC) in healthy
subjects. However, whether inter-individual variability in analogical reasoning
ability in a healthy adult population is related to differences in brain
architecture is unknown. We investigated this question by employing linear
regression models of performance in analogy tasks and voxel-based morphometry in
54 healthy subjects. Our results revealed that the ability to reason by analogy
was associated with structural variability in the left rlPFC and the anterior
part of the inferolateral temporal cortex. Tractography of diffusion-weighted
images suggested that these 2 regions have a different set of connections but may
exchange information via the arcuate fasciculus. These results suggest that
enhanced integrative and semantic abilities supported by structural variation in
these areas (or their connectivity) may lead to more efficient analogical
reasoning.
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DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhu254
PMID: 25331605 [Indexed for MEDLINE]