16 papers · ranked by Valyu relevance
Alexander V. Lebedev, Jonna Nilsson, Martin Lövdén
Researchers have proposed that solving complex reasoning problems, a key indicator of fluid intelligence, involves the same cognitive processes as solving working memory tasks. This proposal is supported by an overlap of the functional brain activations associated with the two types of tasks and by high correlations…
Yangwen Xu, Lorenzo Vignali, Olivier Collignon, Davide Crepaldi + 1 more
Our brain constructs reality through narrative and argumentative thought. Some hypotheses argue that these two modes of cognitive functioning are irreducible, reflecting distinct mental operations underlain by separate neural bases; Others ascribe both to a unitary neural system dedicated to long-timescale information.…
Juan Pablo Franco, Peter Bossaerts, Carsten Murawski
Many everyday tasks require people to solve computationally complex problems. However, little is known about the effects of computational hardness on the neural processes associated with solving such problems. Here, we draw on computational complexity theory to address this issue. We performed an experiment in which…
Hope Kean, Alexander Fung, Paris Jaggers, Jason Chen + 6 more
Humans are endowed with a powerful capacity for both inductive and deductive logical thought: we easily form generalizations based on a few examples and draw conclusions from known premises. Humans also arguably have the most sophisticated communication system in the animal kingdom: natural language allows us to…
Woo-Tek Lee, Eliot Hazeltine, Jiefeng Jiang
Task knowledge is encoded hierarchically such that complex tasks are composed of simpler tasks. This compositional organization also supports generalization to facilitate learning of related but novel complex tasks. To study how the brain implements composition and generalization in hierarchical task learning, we…
Delali Konu, Brontë Mckeown, Adam Turnbull, Nerissa Siu Ping Ho + 5 more
Previous research suggests that patterns of ongoing thought are heterogeneous, varying across situations and individuals. The current study investigated the influence of a wide range of tasks and individual affective style on ongoing patterns of thought. In total, we used 9 different tasks and measured ongoing thought…
Aviva Berkovich-Ohana, Niv Noy, Michal Harel, Edna Furman-Haran + 2 more
Human brain imaging typically employs structured and controlled tasks to avoid variable and inconsistent activation patterns. Here we argue against this assumption by showing that an extremely open-ended, high level cognitive task-loosely defined as “abstract thinking” leads to a precise, and highly consistent…
Alex Gomez-Marin, Zachary F Mainen
Over the past decade neuroscience has been attacking the problem of cognition with increasing vigor. Yet, what exactly is cognition, beyond a general signifier of anything seemingly complex the brain does? Here, we briefly review attempts to define, describe, explain, build, enhance and experience cognition. We…
Hui-Xian Li, Bin Lu, Yu-Wei Wang, Xue-Ying Li + 2 more
Is the brain at rest during the so-called resting-state? Ongoing experiences in the resting-state vary in unobserved and uncontrolled ways across time, individuals, and populations. However, the role of self-generated thoughts in resting-state fMRI remains largely unexplored. In this study, we collected real-time…
Juan Prada, Johannes Balkenhol, Özge Osmanoglu, Maral Afshar + 6 more
Decisions in biology happen fast and are driven by evolution to optimize survival chances. In platelets, this is achieved by organizing signaling cascades into rapid decision-funnels with modulatory crosstalk. We show that network decision processes underlying cellular decisions are tough to solve (equivalent to…
Ankit Yadav, Arpan Banerjee, Dipanjan Roy
Internally directed attention (IDA), whether spontaneous or intentional, has been associated with impaired performance on externally directed cognitive tasks. Yet, the neurophysiological mechanisms underpinning this disruption remain poorly understood. In the present study, we characterized the neural correlates of IDA…
Pablo Fernandez Velasco, Eva-Maria Griesbauer, Iva Brunec, Jeremy Morley + 3 more
Efficient planning is a distinctive hallmark of intelligence in humans, who routinely make rapid inferences over complex world contexts. However, studies investigating how humans accomplish this tend to focus on naive participants engaged in simplistic tasks with small state-spaces, which do not reflect the intricacy…
Artur Pilacinski, Lia Wagner, Gabriel Besson, Maria Joao Matos + 2 more
Non-visual saccades (NVS) are spontaneous eye movements humans make while thinking. Their role is puzzling and there is no framework to explain them in terms of their underlying neural systems. Here we studied neural activity preceding NVS when subjects performed standardized abstract thinking tasks. We used…
D. Ramirez Butavand, A. Barbuzza, P. Bekinschtein, F. Ballarini
Stored memories are useless unless they are available for retrieval. Thus, investigating different ways to modulate retrieval is crucial. Novelty has been extensively studied as a modulator of memory. In this study, we investigated whether exposure to a novel event, an innovative neuroscience lesson, can enhance memory…
Koji Koizumi, Kazutaka Ueda, Ziyang Li, Masayuki Nakao
Human creative thinking is unique and capable of generating novel and valuable ideas. Recent research has clarified the contribution of different brain networks (default mode network, DN; executive control network; salience network) to creative thinking. However, the effects of brain stimulation on brain networks…
Bridget Mulholland, Louis Chitiz, Raven Wallace, Brontë Mckeown + 7 more
The thoughts we experience in daily life have important implications for our health and well-being. However, it is often difficult to measure thoughts patterns outside of laboratory conditions due to concerns about the voracity of measurements taken outside of controlled laboratory conditions. To address this gap in…