Department of Psychology, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland.
J Neurosci. 2012 May 2;32(18):6138-48. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5639-11.2012.
Relational inference denotes the capacity to encode, flexibly retrieve, and integrate multiple memories to combine past experiences to update knowledge and improve decision-making in new situations. Although relational inference is thought to depend on the hippocampus and consciousness, we now show in young, healthy men that it may occur outside consciousness but still recruits the hippocampus. In temporally distinct and unique subliminal episodes, we presented word pairs that either overlapped ("winter-red", "red-computer") or not. Effects of unconscious relational inference emerged in reaction times recorded during unconscious encoding and in the outcome of decisions made 1 min later at test, when participants judged the semantic relatedness of two supraliminal words. These words were either episodically related through a common word ("winter-computer" related through "red") or unrelated. Hippocampal activity increased during the unconscious encoding of overlapping versus nonoverlapping word pairs and during the unconscious retrieval of episodically related versus unrelated words. Furthermore, hippocampal activity during unconscious encoding predicted the outcome of decisions made at test. Hence, unconscious inference may influence decision-making in new situations.
关系推理是指编码、灵活检索和整合多个记忆的能力，以结合过去的经验来更新知识并改善新情况下的决策。尽管关系推理被认为依赖于海马体和意识，但我们现在在年轻、健康的男性中表明，它可能在意识之外发生，但仍然需要海马体的参与。在时间上不同且独特的潜意识片段中，我们呈现了相互重叠（“winter-red”，“red-computer”）或不重叠的单词对。在无意识编码过程中记录的反应时间以及 1 分钟后测试时做出的决策结果中，出现了无意识关系推理的效果，当时参与者判断两个超意识词之间的语义相关性。这些词要么通过一个共同的词（“winter-computer”通过“red”相关），要么没有关系。在无意识编码过程中，重叠的单词对与不重叠的单词对相比，以及在无意识检索中，与相关的单词相比，不相关的单词会引起海马体活动增加。此外，无意识编码期间的海马体活动可以预测测试时做出的决策结果。因此，无意识推理可能会影响新情况下的决策。
