Analogical reasoning

“Wings are to birds as fins are to fish.”

“Wings are to birds as wheels are to cars.”

“Wings are to birds as imagination is to humans.”

These examples illustrate how an analogy between more or less remote domains can help to convey a message or explain a concept with different levels of abstraction (i.e. . Analogies play a central role in human cognition and mental life, ranging from basic comprehension of everyday situations, forming categories, understanding and creating new concepts, to humor, abstract thinking and creativity.

In analogical reasoning, a source situation (for instance a wings:birds) is compared and matched to a target situation (for instance wheels:cars) because they share the same schema or concept (related to movement). According to analogy theories, analogical reasoning engages the consideration of multiple relationships between information, the formation of structured relational representations of this information, and the mapping of these representations.

Previous functional imaging studies have repeatedly pointed to the left rostrolateral prefrontal cortex as an essential region for analogies.

Aims of this research program:

·       To better understand the cognitive processes involved in analogical reasoning and their brain correlates

·       To determine the critical brain networks for analogical reasoning

Methods:

·       Experimental psychology

·       Lesion approach

·       Voxel-based morphometry

·       Diffusion imaging and tractography

·       Functional connectivity

·       Brain electrostimulation (TMS, direct peroperative brain stimulation)

·       Surface and intracranial EEG