An illustrated heuristic prototype facilitates scientific inventive problem solving: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Dandan Tong; Wenfu Li; Chaoying Tang; Wenjing Yang; Yan Tian; Lei Zhang; Meng Zhang; Jiang Qiu; Yijun Liu; Qinglin Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.concog.2015.02.009

An illustrated heuristic prototype facilitates scientific inventive problem solving: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Conscious Cogn. 2015 Jul:34:43-51. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2015.02.009. Epub 2015 Mar 31.

Authors

Dandan Tong¹, Wenfu Li², Chaoying Tang³, Wenjing Yang¹, Yan Tian¹, Lei Zhang⁴, Meng Zhang⁵, Jiang Qiu¹, Yijun Liu⁶, Qinglin Zhang⁷

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, PR China; School of Psychology, Southwest University (SWU), Chongqing 400715, PR China.
² Mental Health Department of Jining Meidical University, Jining, Shandong Province 272013, PR China.
³ Management School of University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, PR China.
⁴ Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, PR China.
⁵ Department of Psychology, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, Henan 453003, PR China.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, PR China; School of Psychology, Southwest University (SWU), Chongqing 400715, PR China. Electronic address: yijunliu@ufl.edu.
⁷ Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, PR China; School of Psychology, Southwest University (SWU), Chongqing 400715, PR China. Electronic address: zhangql@swu.edu.cn.

PMID: 25840359
DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2015.02.009

Abstract

Many scientific inventions (SI) throughout history were inspired by heuristic prototypes (HPs). For instance, an event or piece of knowledge similar to displaced water from a tub inspired Archimedes' principle. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this insightful problem solving are not very clear. Thus, the present study explored the neural correlates used to solve SI problems facilitated by HPs. Each HP had two versions: a literal description with an illustration (LDI) and a literal description with no illustration (LDNI). Thirty-two participants were divided randomly into these two groups. Blood oxygenation level-dependent fMRI contrasts between LDI and LDNI groups were measured. Greater activity in the right middle occipital gyrus (RMOG, BA19), right precentral gyrus (RPCG, BA4), and left middle frontal gyrus (LMFG, BA46) were found within the LDI group as compared to the LDNI group. We discuss these results in terms cognitive functions within these regions related to problem solving and memory retrieval.

Keywords: Heuristic prototypes; Scientific invention; Visual image; fMRI.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Cerebral Cortex / physiology*
Female
Heuristics / physiology*
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Pattern Recognition, Visual / physiology*
Problem Solving / physiology*
Young Adult