Collaborative Research: How does the brain represent abstract concepts?

对概念集合之间的关系进行推理的能力-关系推理-产生了抽象思维，并推动了人类在科学和技术方面的一些最伟大的成就。虽然先前的研究已经确定了大脑中关系推理发生的位置，但该项目通过解决大脑如何表示抽象关系来推动研究领域。具体而言，该项目旨在解决三个关键问题：（1）大脑能否独立于构成概念内容的具体实体来表示抽象概念？(2)人们是否只在明确需要时才以抽象的方式表示概念，或者抽象关系也会自发地被检索？(3)什么样的神经标志物能够可靠地预测个体之间推理能力的差异？也就是说，大脑更容易表现抽象关系的人是否也往往具有更强的推理能力，和/或感知其他人错过的有意义的联系？该项目将确定抽象思维和推理的计算基础，从而创造一个机会，通过为人工智能系统提供更有效的学习机制来完善它们。这项工作将为未来的研究提供信息，研究儿童和成人作为终身学习者如何形成抽象概念的表征。本研究整合了多变量功能磁共振成像、计算模型和行为方法学的最新进展，以发现抽象关系表征的神经认知机制。研究将系统地研究这种表征的神经基础，以及任务背景和个体差异的影响。首先，行为启动和神经相似性的措施，以及从关系推理的计算模型的指标，将表征重叠的概念，只是抽象相关的对之间的表示。第二，任务需求的操纵将决定神经表征的大小、位置和稳定性是否随显式认知指令而变化。最后，一种新的“神经评分”指标的发展将确定神经标记的个体差异，在关系reasoning.This奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。

The ability to reason about the relations between sets of concepts—relational reasoning—gives rise to abstract thought, and has fueled some of humanity’s greatest achievements in science and technology. Although prior research has identified where in the brain relational reasoning takes place, this project pushes the research field by addressing how the brain represents abstract relations. Specifically, the project aims to address three key questions: (1) Can the brain represent an abstract idea independently of the concrete entities that comprise the content of the idea? (2) Do people represent concepts in an abstract manner only when explicitly required to do so, or are abstract relations also retrieved spontaneously? (3) What neural markers reliably predict differences in reasoning capacity between individuals? That is, do individuals whose brains represent abstract relations more readily also tend to have stronger reasoning skills, and/or to perceive meaningful connections that others miss? This project will identify the computational basis for abstract thought and reasoning, thereby creating an opportunity to refine artificial intelligence systems by providing them with more efficient learning mechanisms. This work will inform future research examining how children, and adults as lifelong learners, form representations of abstract concepts. This project integrates recent advances in multivariate fMRI, computational modeling, and behavioral methodology to discover the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the representation of abstract relations. Research will systematically examine the neural bases of this representation, as well as the influence of task context and individual differences. First, behavioral priming and neural similarity measures, alongside metrics from a computational model of relational reasoning, will characterize the overlap in representation between pairs of concepts that are only abstractly related. Second, manipulation of task demands will determine whether the magnitude, location, and stability of neural representations vary with explicit cognitive instructions. Finally, development of a novel 'neural score' metric will determine neural markers of individual differences in relational reasoning.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.