Abstract：
Complex human reasoning involves minimal abilities to extract conclusions implied in the available information. These abilities are considered \"deductive\" because they exemplify certain abstract relations among propositions or probabilities called deductive arguments. However, the electrophysiological dynamics which supports such complex cognitive processes has not been addressed yet. In this work we consider typically deductive logico-probabilistically valid inferences and aim to verify or refute their electrophysiological functional connectivity differences from invalid inferences with the same content (same relational variables, same stimuli, same relevant and salient features). We recorded the brain electrophysiological activity of 20 participants (age = 20.35 ± 3.23) by means of an MEG system during two consecutive reasoning tasks: a search task (invalid condition) without any specific deductive rules to follow, and a logically valid deductive task (valid condition) with explicit deductive rules as instructions. We calculated the functional connectivity (FC) for each condition and conducted a seed-based analysis in a set of cortical regions of interest. Finally, we used a cluster-based permutation test to compare the differences between logically valid and invalid conditions in terms of FC. As a first novel result we found higher FC for valid condition in beta band between regions of interest and left prefrontal, temporal, parietal, and cingulate structures. FC analysis allows a second novel result which is the definition of a propositional network with operculo-cingular, parietal and medial nodes, specifically including disputed medial deductive \"core\" areas. The experiment discloses measurable cortical processes which do not depend on content but on truth-functional propositional operators. These experimental novelties may contribute to understand the cortical bases of deductive processes.
摘要：
复杂的人类推理涉及提取可用信息中隐含的结论的能力最小。这些能力被认为是“演绎的”，因为它们例示了命题或概率之间的某些抽象关系，称为演绎参数。然而,支持这种复杂认知过程的电生理动力学尚未得到解决。在这项工作中，我们考虑了典型的演绎逻辑-概率有效的推论，并旨在验证或反驳具有相同内容（相同的关系变量，相同的刺激,相同的相关和显著特征)。我们在两个连续的推理任务中通过MEG系统记录了20名参与者（年龄=20.35±3.23）的脑电生理活动：搜索任务（无效条件），没有任何特定的演绎规则，和逻辑上有效的演绎任务（有效条件），以明确的演绎规则为指令。我们计算了每种条件的功能连通性（FC），并在一组感兴趣的皮质区域中进行了基于种子的分析。最后,我们使用基于簇的置换检验来比较FC方面的逻辑有效和无效条件之间的差异.作为第一个新的结果，我们发现感兴趣区域和左前额叶之间的β带有效条件的FC更高，temporal,顶叶,和扣带回结构。FC分析提供了第二个新颖的结果，即具有可操作性的命题网络的定义，顶叶和内侧节点，特别包括有争议的中间演绎“核心”区域。实验公开了可测量的皮层过程，这些过程不依赖于内容，而是依赖于真实功能命题算子。这些实验新颖性可能有助于理解演绎过程的皮质基础。
