Ohkuma Reiji, Kurihara Yuto, Osu Rieko
Graduate School of Human Sciences, Waseda University, Tokorozawa, Japan.
Faculty of Human Sciences, Waseda University, Tokorozawa, Japan.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2025 Aug 21;19:1607193. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2025.1607193. eCollection 2025.
Suppressing irrelevant information during problem-solving is vital. Misleading or unrelated information may hinder the performance. However, previous studies inferred suppression-related brain regions based on overall problem-solving or pre-solution neural activity, resulting in insufficient experimental control over the precise timing of suppression and the types of information requiring suppression. In this study, we presented different types of distractors when introducing a problem to examine neural activity associated with suppressing unnecessary information. Participants completed the Japanese version of the Remote Associates Test in an MRI scanner under three conditions: strongly misleading, weakly related, and no distractors. Before the experiment, the participants were informed about the distractors and instructed to ignore them when the problem was presented. The findings showed that stronger suppression demands at problem onset increased the activation of the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Furthermore, the IFG activity, initiated at the beginning of the problem, decreased gradually rather than toward obtaining a solution to the presented problem. These findings suggest that the bilateral IFG supports problem-solving by suppressing irrelevant information.
在解决问题的过程中抑制无关信息至关重要。误导性或不相关的信息可能会阻碍表现。然而，以往的研究是基于整体的问题解决或解决问题前的神经活动来推断与抑制相关的脑区，导致对抑制的精确时间和需要抑制的信息类型的实验控制不足。在本研究中，我们在引入问题时呈现不同类型的干扰项，以检验与抑制不必要信息相关的神经活动。参与者在三种条件下于MRI扫描仪中完成日语版的远距离联想测验：强误导性、弱相关性和无干扰项。在实验前，向参与者告知干扰项，并指示他们在呈现问题时忽略这些干扰项。研究结果表明，在问题开始时更强的抑制需求会增加双侧额下回（IFG）的激活。此外，在问题开始时启动的IFG活动逐渐减少，而不是在找到所呈现问题的解决方案时减少。这些发现表明，双侧IFG通过抑制无关信息来支持问题解决。
