Seeing The World Through Analogies

This piece, by Onno Berkan, was published on 11/12/24. The original text, by Li et al., was published by the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience on 05/01/24.

This study from Beijing Normal University investigated how our brains process and understand patterns in language through analogical reasoning– the ability to recognize similarities between different things. The researchers were particularly interested in how people recognize and apply syntactic (grammatical) patterns, which is fundamental to learning and using language.

The study involved 24 healthy young adults from Beijing Normal University, including an equal number of men and women with an average age of 23.5 years. To avoid bias from familiar writing systems, the researchers used unfamiliar symbols from Taiwanese (Bopomofo) and Japanese (Katakana) writing systems as their test materials.

The experiment was structured around pattern recognition tasks of varying complexity. Participants had to identify relationships between different sequences of symbols, similar to solving a puzzle where you need to find matching patterns. The patterns followed specific grammatical rules, including repetition (AABB), mirror (ABBA), and copy (ABAB) patterns.

Before the main experiment, participants underwent training to ensure they understood the tasks, practicing with symbols different from those used in the study to prevent memory interference. During the experiment, participants' brain activity was monitored using fMRI while they completed these pattern recognition tasks.

The results showed that participants could successfully complete both simple and complex pattern recognition tasks, though the more complex tasks required more cognitive effort. Interestingly, the researchers found that participants who used creative strategies, such as converting the symbols into numbers or gestures, performed slightly better, although this difference wasn't statistically significant.

The fMRI data revealed specific brain activation patterns during analogical reasoning tasks. Compared to first-order relational judgments, second-order reasoning activated the anterior and posterior middle frontal gyrus (MFG). These activations were distinct from those that occur during working memory. 

A particularly interesting finding emerged when examining the dorsoventral gradient in the anterior MFG. Previous research has shown that visuospatial analogies activated more dorsal regions compared to semantic analogies. The activation patterns for syntactic analogies showed characteristics that shared properties with both types, reflecting the dual nature of syntactic processing– being both abstract, like visuospatial relationships, and linguistically relevant, like semantic processing.

This provides valuable insights into how our brains process and learn language patterns. It suggests that multiple cognitive abilities work together rather than relying on a single mechanism. Different reasoning demands are met by different frontal sub-regions.

This study has important implications for understanding how humans learn and process language, particularly pattern recognition and rule learning. The findings could influence how we teach languages or develop artificial intelligence systems that process language patterns.

Want to submit a piece? Or trying to write a piece and struggling? Check out the guides here!

Thank you for reading. Reminder: Byte Sized is open to everyone! Feel free to submit your piece. Please read the guides first though.

All submissions to berkan@usc.edu with the header “Byte Sized Submission” in Word Doc format please. Thank you!