Neural Development of Deductive Reasoning

描述(由申请人提供)：演绎推理是人类智力的核心，在儿童时期学习和理解基本概念方面发挥着重要作用。扣除额对数学和语言学习也有很大贡献。鉴于演绎推理在教育中的核心作用，提高我们对其发展的认知和神经基础的理解是至关重要的。对成年人的神经成像研究表明，大脑中负责演绎的区域部分取决于任务的类型。例如，与视觉空间加工相关的后顶叶区域被牵连到线性关系推理中(例如，汤姆比比尔高，比尔比约翰高，因此汤姆比约翰高)，而与言语加工相关的左下顶叶区域被牵连到范畴推理中(例如，所有的郁金香都是花，所有的花都是植物，因此所有的郁金香都是植物)。然而，成人的神经成像研究也显示左侧嘴侧前额叶皮质受累。 在关系推理和确定论推理中，表明该地区在 所有类型推理问题的前提的操控和整合。虽然已经有一些成人的神经成像研究和儿童的行为研究，但对儿童演绎推理发展的神经基础知之甚少。这个项目将使用功能磁共振成像(FMRI)来研究典型发育中的儿童(8-9岁与12-13岁)的关系推理和分类推理的神经发展。我们将使用传统的fMRI分析来检查信号强度的差异，但我们也将使用动态因果模型(DCM)来检查有效连通性的差异。这个项目的结果将表明演绎推理是如何在儿童和青春期早期出现并与空间和语言系统相互作用的。通过确定典型发育儿童演绎推理的神经发展，我们的研究也将为未来的研究提供必要的基础，这些研究将探索这种发展轨迹在特定语言障碍和计算障碍儿童中的不同。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Deductive reasoning is central to human intelligence and plays a fundamental role in the learning and understanding of fundamental concepts during childhood. Deductions also contribute significantly to mathematical and language learning. Given the central role of deductive reasoning in education, it is critical to advance our understanding of the cognitive and neural underpinnings of its development. Neuroimaging research in adults suggests that the brain regions that are engaged in deduction partially depend upon the type of task. For example, posterior parietal regions that have been linked to visuo-spatial processing have been implicated in linear relational reasoning (e.g., Tom is taller than Bill, Bill is taller than John, therefore Tom is taller than John), whereas left inferior fronal regions associated with verbal processing have been implicated in categorical reasoning (e.g., All Tulips are Flowers, All Flowers are Plants, therefore All Tulips are Plants). However, neuroimaging studies in adults also show that the left rostro-lateral prefrontal cortex is involved in both relational and categorical reasoning, suggesting a more general role for this region in the manipulation and integration of the premises of all types of reasoning problems. Although there have been several neuroimaging studies in adults and behavioral studies in children, nothing is known about the neural basis of the development of deductive reasoning in children. This project will use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural development of relational and categorical reasoning in typically developing children (8-9 versus 12-13 year olds). We will examine differences in signal intensity using conventional fMRI analyses, but we will also examine differences in effective connectivity using dynamic causal modeling (DCM). The results of this project will indicate how deductive reasoning emerges and interacts with spatial and verbal systems during childhood and early adolescence. By identifying the neural development of deductive reasoning in typically developing children, our study will also provide the necessary groundwork for future studies that will investigate how this developmental trajectory differs in children with specific language impairment and dyscalculia.