ERP characteristics of sentential inductive reasoning in time and frequency domains

  • Authors:

  • Peipeng Liang;Ning Zhong;Shengfu Lu;Jiming Liu

  • Affiliations:

  • The International WIC Institute, Beijing University of Technology, China;The International WIC Institute, Beijing University of Technology, China and Department of Life Science and Informatics, Maebashi Institute of Technology, Japan;The International WIC Institute, Beijing University of Technology, China;The International WIC Institute, Beijing University of Technology, China and Department of Computer Science, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong

  • Venue:
  • Cognitive Systems Research
  • Year:
  • 2010

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Abstract

Earlier studies have examined the issues of brain spatial localization in human sentential inductive reasoning using PET/fMRI. However, the temporal characteristics of such reasoning remain unclear. In our present study, we have used ERP (Event-related Potential) to further study human inductive reasoning involving sentential tasks. For congruent induction tasks, in which premises and conclusions are related, participants need to synthesize semantic information from the premises, conclusions, as well as background knowledge, while for incongruent induction tasks (baseline), in which premises and conclusions are unrelated, participants can respond ''no'' immediately. Behavioral data have been obtained that is consistent with expectations. ERPs imply that participants may integrate semantic information within the time window of 350-650ms. Statistical analysis in the frequency domain has revealed a significant increase in the power of the gamma band (30-50Hz) for congruent induction tasks in contrast to incongruent induction tasks.