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Common and specific neural correlates underlying insight and ordinary problem solving

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Abstract

Previous studies have investigated the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying insight problem solving (INPS). However, it is still unclear which mechanisms are common to both INPS and ordinary problem solving (ORPS), and which are distinctly involved in only one of these processes. In this study, we selected two types of Chinese character chunk decompositions, ordinary Chinese character chunk decomposition (OCD) and creative Chinese character chunk decomposition (CCD), as representatives of ORPS and INPS, respectively. By using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to record brain activations when subjects executed OCD or CCD operations, we found that both ORPS and INPS resulted in significant activations in the widespread frontoparietal cognitive control network, including the middle frontal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, and inferior parietal lobe. Furthermore, compared with ORPS, INPS led to greater activations in higher-level brain regions related to symbolic processing in the default mode network, including the anterior cingulate cortex, superior temporal gyrus, angular gyrus, and precuneus. Conversely, ORPS induced greater activations than INPS in more posterior brain regions related to visuospatial attention and visual perception, such as the inferior temporal gyrus, hippocampus, and middle occipital gyrus/superior parietal gyrus/fusiform gyrus. In addition, an ROI analysis corroborated the neural commonalities and differences between ORPS and INPS. These findings provide new evidence that ORPS and INPS rely on common as well as distinct cognitive processes and cortical mechanisms.

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Abbreviations

ORPS:

Ordinary problem solving

INPS:

Insight problem solving

OCD:

Ordinary Chinese character chunk decomposition

CCD:

Creative Chinese character chunk decomposition

OCDL:

Ordinary chunk decomposition-low difficult level

OCDH:

Ordinary chunk decomposition-high difficult level

CCDL:

Creative chunk decomposition-low creative level

CCDH:

Creative chunk decomposition-high creative level

MFG:

Middle frontal gyrus

IFG:

Inferior frontal gyrus

SMG:

Supramarginal gyrus

MPFC:

Medial prefrontal cortex

IPL:

Inferior parietal lobe

PCUN:

Precuneus

SFG:

Superior frontal gyrus

AG:

Angular gyrus

ACC:

Anterior cingulate cortex

STG:

Superior temporal gyrus

MTG:

Middle temporal gyrus

HIP:

Hippocampus

ITG:

Inferior temporal gyrus

MOG:

Middle occipital gyrus

MCC:

Middle cingulate cortex

SMA:

Sensorimotor areas

SPL:

Superior parietal lobe

FG:

Fusiform gyrus

MNI:

Montreal Neurological Institute

FWHM:

Full width at half maximum

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

RTs:

Response times

ROI:

Region of interest

CRs:

Correct rates

DMN:

Default mode network

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by funding from the Project of Guangzhou Philosophies and Social Sciences (Grant Number: 2020GZQN43), the National Social Science Foundation of China (Grant Number: 14ZDB159) and the Project of Key Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, MOE (16JJD880025).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics and Management, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Jiabao Lin

  2. Center for Studies of Psychological Application, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China

    Jiabao Lin, Xuan Cui, Yajue Chen, Ruiwang Huang & Lei Mo

  3. Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, 510631, China

    Jiabao Lin, Xuan Cui, Yajue Chen, Ruiwang Huang & Lei Mo

  4. School of Education and Psychology, Hainan Normal University, Haikou, 571158, China

    Xue Wen

  5. Cognition and Human Behavior Key Laboratory of Hunan and Department of Psychology, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410006, China

    Yanhui Xiang

  6. School of Psychology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Jiushu Xie

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  1. Jiabao Lin
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Lin, J., Wen, X., Cui, X. et al. Common and specific neural correlates underlying insight and ordinary problem solving. Brain Imaging and Behavior 15, 1374–1387 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-020-00337-z

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