Junlong Luo

Neural Basis of Scientific Innovation Induced by Heuristic Prototype

A number of major inventions in history have been based on bionic imitation. Heuristics, by applying biological systems to the creation of artificial devices and machines, might be one of the most critical processes in scientific innovation. In particular, prototype heuristics propositions that innovation may engage automatic activation of a prototype such as a biological system to form novel associations between a prototypes function and problem-solving. We speculated that the cortical dissociation between the automatic activation and forming novel associations in innovation is critical point to heuristic creativity. In the present study, novel and old scientific innovations (NSI and OSI) were selected as experimental materials in using learning-testing paradigm to explore the neural basis of scientific innovation induced by heuristic prototype. College students were required to resolve NSI problems (to which they did not know the answers) and OSI problems (to which they knew the answers). From two fMRI experiments, our results showed that the subjects could resolve NSI when provided with heuristic prototypes. In Experiment 1, it was found that the lingual gyrus (LG; BA18) might be related to prototype heuristics in college students resolving NSI after learning a relative prototype. In Experiment 2, the LG (BA18) and precuneus (BA31) were significantly activated for NSI compared to OSI when college students learned all prototypes one day before the test. In addition, the mean beta-values of these brain regions of NSI were all correlated with the behavior accuracy of NSI. As our hypothesis indicated, the findings suggested that the LG might be involved in forming novel associations using heuristic information, while the precuneus might be involved in the automatic activation of heuristic prototype during scientific innovation.

Neural correlates of the belief-bias effect in syllogistic reasoning: an event-related potential study.

This study investigated electrophysiological correlates of belief-bias effects in syllogistic reasoning. Event-related brain potentials were recorded for minor premises with which participants were required to draw a logic conclusion during three conditions: the inhibitory belief condition (IBC, the belief is inhibitory to the logical task), the facilitatory belief condition (FBC, the belief is facilitatory to the logical task), and the baseline condition. The results demonstrated a more positive event-related potential deflection during IBC and FBC conditions than during the noninference baseline condition in both the 300–500 and the 1000–1600 ms time windows. Moreover, IBC elicited a more positive event-related potential deflection (P500) than did FBC across central-frontal cortical regions during the 300–600 ms interval. Therefore, this study observed a clear belief-bias effect, and the enhanced P500 activity during IBC, which relates to the belief bias that obstructs normal inferences, most likely reflects an inhibition to beliefs during later relation integration stage.

Cognitive control in belief-laden reasoning during conclusion processing: An ERP study

Belief bias is the tendency to accept conclusions that are compatible with existing beliefs more frequently than those that contradict beliefs. It is one of the most replicated behavioral findings in the reasoning literature. Recently, neuroimaging studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and event-related potentials (ERPs) have provided a new perspective and have demonstrated neural correlates of belief bias that have been viewed as supportive of dual-process theories of belief bias. However, fMRI studies have tended to focus on conclusion processing, while ERPs studies have been concerned with the processing of premises. In the present research, the electrophysiological correlates of cognitive control were studied among 12 subjects using high-density ERPs. The analysis was focused on the conclusion presentation phase and was limited to normatively sanctioned responses to valid-believable and valid-unbelievable problems. Results showed that when participants gave normatively sanctioned responses to problems where belief and logic conflicted, a more positive ERP deflection was elicited than for normatively sanctioned responses to nonconflict problems. This was observed from -400 to -200 ms prior to the correct response being given. The positive component is argued to be analogous to the late positive component (LPC) involved in cognitive control processes. This is consistent with the inhibition of empirically anomalous information when conclusions are unbelievable. These data are important in elucidating the neural correlates of belief bias by providing evidence for electrophysiological correlates of conflict resolution during conclusion processing. Moreover, they are supportive of dual-process theories of belief bias that propose conflict detection and resolution processes as central to the explanation of belief bias.

Temporal course of cognitive control in a picture-word interference task.

The neural correlates of cognitive control in a picture–word interference task were investigated in 13 healthy individuals using event-related potentials. The differences between the incongruent condition and the congruent condition were examined. Behavioral data showed that the task yielded a robust interference effect as indexed by a longer reaction time for the incongruent condition. Scalp event-related potential analysis revealed greater negative differences in N300 and N570 in the incongruent compared with the congruent condition. The results showed that there may be two cognitive control phases during conflict resolution in a picture–word interference task. N300 is a critical sign of conflict monitoring in the primitive stage, whereas N570 embodies the response conflict in the terminal stage.

Different brain mechanisms between stereotype activation and application: Evidence from an ERP study

Stereotyping involves two processes in which first, social stereotypes are activated (stereotype activation), and then, stereotypes are applied to given targets (stereotype application). Previous behavioral studies have suggested that these two processes are independent of each other and may have different mechanisms. As few psychophysiological studies have given an integrated account of these stages in stereotyping so far, this study utilized a trait categorization task in which event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to explore the brain mechanisms associated with the processes of stereotype activation and its application. The behavioral (reaction time) and electrophysiological data showed that stereotype activation and application were elicited respectively in an affective valence identification subtask and in a semantic content judgment subtask. The electrophysiological results indicated that the categorization processes involved in stereotype activation to quickly identify stereotypic and nonstereotypic information were quite different from those involved in the application. During the process of stereotype activation, a P2 and N2 effect was observed, indicating that stereotype activation might be facilitated by an early attentional bias. Also, a late positive potential (LPP) was elicited, suggesting that social expectancy violation might be involved. During the process of the stereotype application, electrophysiological data showed a P2 and P3 effect, indicating that stereotype application might be related to the rapid social knowledge identification in semantic representation and thus may be associated with an updating of existing stereotypic contents or a motivation to resolve the inconsistent information. This research strongly suggested that different mechanisms are involved in the stereotype activation and application processes.

The event-related potential elicited by taste-visual cross-modal interference

Sixteen healthy subjects took part in this event-related potentials (ERPs) study aimed at investigating the neural response of the taste-visual cross-modal pairing. An interference effect was observed at the behavioral level: the mismatched condition was performed more slowly than the matched condition. ERP analyses revealed a more negative component between 400 and 600 ms in the mismatched condition than in the matched condition. Dipole source analysis of the difference wave (mismatched minus matched) indicated that two generators localized in prefrontal cortex (PFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) contributed to this cross-modal interference effect. These results provided the electrophysiological evidence of interference during the extraction of taste information from memory and conflict control during the incongruent taste-visual information processing.

The neural correlates of belief-bias inhibition: The impact of logic training

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate the brain activity associated with response change in a belief bias paradigm before and after logic training. Participants completed two sets of belief biased reasoning tasks. In the first set they were instructed to respond based on their empirical beliefs, and in the second - following logic training - they were instructed to respond logically. The comparison between conflict problems in the second scan versus in the first scan revealed differing activation for the left inferior frontal gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, cerebellum, and precuneus. The scan was time locked to the presentation of the minor premise, and thus demonstrated effects of belief-logic conflict on neural activation earlier in the time course than has previously been shown in fMRI. These data, moreover, indicated that logical training results in changes in brain activity associated with cognitive control processing.

Exploring the experience of novelty when viewing creative adverts: An ERP study.

The electrophysiological correlates of experiencing novelty in creative advertising were studied in 28 healthy subjects using event-related potentials. Participants viewed images that were difficult to interpret until a description was presented providing either a creative description (CD) featuring an unexpected description of the image based on the original advertisement, or a normal description (ND), which was a literal description of the image (and served as a baseline condition). Participants evaluated the level of creativity of the description. The results showed that the N2 amplitude was higher for CDs than for NDs across middle and right scalp regions between 240 and 270 ms, most likely reflecting conflict detection. Moreover, CDs demonstrated greater N400 than NDs in a time window between 380 and 500 ms, it is argued that this reflects semantic integration. The present study investigates the electrophysiological correlates of experiencing novelty in advertising with ecologically valid stimuli. This substantially extends the findings of earlier laboratory studies with more artificial stimuli.

The electrophysiological correlates of the size incongruity effect.

The size incongruity effect refers to an increase in response time when the physical size of the letters in which the name of an object is written conflicts with the actual size of the object named. The electrophysiological correlates of the size incongruity effect were investigated in 13 healthy individuals through event-related potentials in this study. Scalp event-related potential analysis revealed: the incongruent condition elicited two more negative components N200–400 and N500–700 than did the congruent condition. N200–400 is a critical sign of conflict detection in the early stage, whereas N500–700 mirrors the response conflict in the late stage. The results provided evidence for the dissociation between conflict detection and conflict resolution in the size incongruity effect.

Neural Mechanisms of the Belief-bias Effect Based on Dual Process Theories: Neural Mechanisms of the Belief-bias Effect Based on Dual Process Theories

The belief bias effect refers to a phenomenon that the performance of participants in a logical reasoning task is influenced by their prior beliefs. As dual process theory assumes, this effect is based on the conflict between the belief system and the analytic system. Recent studies from cognitive neuroscience have provided strong evidence for this view. Specifically, on the one hand, neuroimaging studies (in which from varied perceptive) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) have demonstrated that the inhibition of belief-bias is associated with increased activation of the right prefrontal cortex (PFC). On the other hand, studies using event-related potentials (ERPs) have found that some ERP components (e.g., late positive component and late negative component) were associated with the cognitive process of belief-bias effect in different reasoning types. Further studies should be concerned with the following aspects: working memory, different stages of processing, believability of premises, analysis of experiment, ecological validity of the materials, thinking training, and so on.