Author:
Martín-Salguero Ana,Reverberi Carlo,Solari Aldo,Filippin Luca,Pallier Christophe,Bonatti Luca L.
Abstract
AbstractWe often express our thoughts through words, but thinking goes well beyond language. Here we focus on an elementary but basic thinking process, disjunction elimination, elicited by elementary visual scenes deprived of linguistic content, describing its neural and oculomotor correlates. We track two main components of a nonverbal deductive process: the construction of a logical representation (A or B), and its simplification by deduction (not A, therefore B). We identify the network active in the two phases and show that in the latter, but not in the former, it overlaps with areas known to respond to verbal logical reasoning. Oculomotor markers consistently differentiate logical processing induced by the construction of a representation, its simplification by deductive inference, and its maintenance when inferences cannot be drawn. Our results reveal how integrative logical processes incorporate novel experience in the flow of thoughts induced by visual scenes.
Funder
Ministerio de ciencia y Innovación, Spain
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
James S. McDonnell Foundation
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
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