Department of Psychology, University of Hull, UK.
Department of Psychology, York University, 4700 Keele St., Toronto, Ont., Canada M3J 1P3.
Neuropsychologia. 2018 Oct;119:320-329. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.05.014. Epub 2018 May 14.
To answer the question of how brain pathology affects reasoning about negative emotional content, we administered a disjunctive logical reasoning task involving arguments with neutral content (e.g. Either there are tigers or women in NYC, but not both; There are no tigers in NYC; There are women in NYC) and emotionally laden content (e.g. Either there are pedophiles or politicians in Texas, but not both; There are politicians in Texas; There are no pedophiles in Texas) to 92 neurological patients with focal lesions to various parts of the brain. A Voxel Lesion Symptom Mapping (VLSM) analysis identified 16 patients, all with lesions to the orbital polar prefrontal cortex (BA 10 & 11), as being selectively impaired in the emotional reasoning condition. Another 17 patients, all with lesions to the parietal cortex, were identified as being impaired in the neutral content condition. The reasoning scores of these two patient groups, along with 23 matched normal controls, underwent additional analysis to explore the effect of belief bias. This analysis revealed that the differences identified above were largely driven by trials where there was an incongruency between the believability of the conclusion and the validity of the argument (i.e. valid argument/false conclusion or invalid argument/true conclusion). Patients with lesions to polar orbital prefrontal cortex underperformed in incongruent emotional content trials and over performed in incongruent neutral content trials (compared to both normal controls and patients with parietal lobe lesions). Patients with lesions to parietal lobes underperformed normal controls (at a trend level) in neutral trials where there was a congruency between the believability of the conclusion and the validity of the argument (i.e. valid argument/true conclusion or invalid argument/false conclusion). We conclude that lesions to the polar orbital prefrontal cortex (i) prevent these patients from enjoying any emotionally induced cognitive boost, and (ii) block the belief bias processing route in the neutral condition. Lesions to parietal lobes result in a generalized impairment in logical reasoning with neutral content.
为了回答大脑病理学如何影响对负面情绪内容的推理这一问题，我们向 92 名患有局灶性脑损伤的神经科患者施行了一项离散逻辑推理任务，该任务涉及具有中性内容（例如，要么纽约市有老虎或女性，但两者都没有；纽约市没有老虎；纽约市有女性）和情绪负荷内容（例如，要么德克萨斯州有恋童癖者或政客，但两者都没有；德克萨斯州有政客；德克萨斯州没有恋童癖者）的论证。体素病变症状映射（VLSM）分析确定了 16 名患者，他们的眶额极前额皮质（BA 10 和 11）都有病变，他们在情绪推理条件下表现出选择性受损。另外 17 名患者，他们的顶叶皮层都有病变，被确定为在中性内容条件下受损。这两组患者的推理得分，以及 23 名匹配的正常对照组，进行了额外的分析，以探讨信念偏差的影响。这项分析表明，上述差异主要是由结论可信度与论证有效性之间不一致的试验引起的（即有效论证/错误结论或无效论证/真实结论）。眶额极前额皮质损伤的患者在不一致的情绪内容试验中表现不佳，而在不一致的中性内容试验中表现良好（与正常对照组和顶叶损伤患者相比）。顶叶损伤的患者在中性试验中表现不如正常对照组（在趋势水平上），在结论可信度与论证有效性之间一致的情况下（即有效论证/真实结论或无效论证/虚假结论）。我们得出结论，眶额极前额皮质的损伤（i）阻止这些患者享受任何情绪引起的认知提升，（ii）阻断中性条件下的信念偏差处理途径。顶叶损伤导致中性内容的逻辑推理普遍受损。
