The role of posterior parietal cortex in problem representation

  • Authors:

  • Jie Xiang;Yulin Qin;Junjie Chen;Haiyan Zhou;Kuncheng Li;Ning Zhong

  • Affiliations:

  • The International WIC Institute, Beijing University of Technology, China and College of Computer and Software, Taiyuan University of Technology, China;The International WIC Institute, Beijing University of Technology, China and Dept of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University;College of Computer and Software, Taiyuan University of Technology, China;The International WIC Institute, Beijing University of Technology, China;Dept of Radiology, Xuanwu Hospital Capital University of Medical Sciences, China;The International WIC Institute, Beijing University of Technology, China and Dept of Life Science and Informatics, Maebashi Institute of Technology, Japan

  • Venue:
  • BI'10 Proceedings of the 2010 international conference on Brain informatics
  • Year:
  • 2010

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Abstract

Problem representation is one of the key factors in problem solving. According to previous studies, PPC (Posterior Parietal Cortex) is critical for problem representation. Whether does problem expression form affect problem representation? What are the cognitive role of PPC in representation? In order to answer these questions, a fMRI experiment was performed in this study to examine the role of PPC in problem solving. It was a 2 × 2 designed experiment with two 2-level factors: task complexity (one-step and two-steps) and expression form (digits and symbols). In a digital task, 4 digits are provided in the initial grids, while 4 symbols of poker are provided in a symbolic task. In a task of one-step, participants only need one time rules retrieving to get the target answer, while in a task of two-steps, participants need two times rules retrieving to get the answer of target after getting the answer of a bridging location. The results of fMRI show that PPC activated significantly. The further analysis shows that there is a positive correlation between the activation intensity of PPC and task complexity, but the correlation between the activation intensity of PPC and task expression is not significant. According these results, we infer that PPC plays an important role in problem representation, maybe this representation is a high level abstraction.