Journal
NEUROIMAGE
Volume 20, Issue 4, Pages 2314-2321Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2003.07.027
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Logic is widely considered the basis of rationality. Logical choices, however, are often influenced by emotional responses, sometimes to our detriment, sometimes to our advantage. To understand the neural basis of emotionally neutral (cold) and emotionally salient (hot) reasoning we studied 19 volunteers using event-related fMRI, as they made logical judgments about arguments that varied in emotional saliency. Despite identical logical form and content categories across hot and cold reasoning conditions, lateral and ventral medial prefrontal cortex showed reciprocal response patterns as a function of emotional saliency of content. Cold reasoning trials resulted in enhanced activity in lateral/dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (L/DLPFC) and suppression of activity in ventral medial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC). By contrast, hot reasoning trials resulted in enhanced activation in VMPFC and suppression of activation in L/DLPFC. This reciprocal engagement of L/DLPFC and VMPFC provides evidence for a dynamic neural system for reasoning, the configuration of which is strongly influenced by emotional saliency. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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