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Abstract:
The aim of the project presented is to elucidate the role of two frontal areas - prefrontal cortex (PFC) and premotor cortex (PMC) - in action planning.
As planning always entails representing relations between different components of the task, it can be conceived of as a kind of relational reasoning. Both brain areas are suggested to be involved in relational thinking. In this experiment we tested the hypothesis that the functional difference lies in the cognitive domain of the relational information processed. For PFC, the type of relational reasoning might be characterized as “abstract”, whereas the relational reasoning performed by PMC could be more “motor-related”. To differentiate the correlates of relational processes in the motor and abstract domains, brain activation was measured using fMRI. A reasoning paradigm adapted from the Raven Progressive Matrices was employed, with subjects performing in an “abstract” condition and an “action” condition. First results are presented.
