An fMRI study of causal judgments.

Full Abstract

The capacity to evaluate causal relations is fundamental to human cognition, and yet little is known of its neurocognitive underpinnings. A functional magnetic resonance imaging study was performed to investigate an hypothesized dissociation between the use of semantic knowledge to evaluate specifically causal relations in contrast to general associative relations. Identical pairs of words were judged for causal or associative relations in different blocks of trials. Causal judgments, beyond associative judgments, generated distinct activation in left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and right pre-cuneus. These findings indicate that the evaluation of causal relations in semantic memory involves additional neural mechanisms relative to those required to evaluate associative relations.

Author information

Author/s: Satpute, Ajay B (AB); Fenker, Daniela B (DB); Waldmann, Michael R (MR); Tabibnia, Golnaz (G); Holyoak, Keith J (KJ); Lieberman, Matthew D (MD);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, 1285 Franz Hall, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563, USA. satpute(-atsign-)psych.ucla.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: The European journal of neuroscience (Eur J Neurosci), published in France. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2005-Sep; vol 22 (issue 5) : pp 1233-8

Dates: Created 2005/09/22; Completed 2006/01/10; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 16176366, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

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