Monti, M. M., & Osherson, D. N. (2012). Logic, language and the brain. Brain research, 1428, 33-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2011.05.061

Johns Hopkins University

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1. The role of language in deductive reasoning is confined to an initial stage

Language and Deduction 

Logic, Language and the Brain

1. Left sylvian fissure (including inferior frontal and posterior temporal cortices). Some aspects of communicative competence have been shown to rely on areas that fall outside of this region, but these are the central components.


Structural Areas for Human Linguistic Capacity

1. Core Regions: Left rostrolateral and medial prefrontal cortices. The function of these regions is the construction and derivation of logical operations.
2. Content-independent Support Areas: Prefrontal and parietal regions that are not core regions. These areas functions supportively such as representing argument structures and general cognitive support like allocating attention. 
3. Content-dependent Support Areas: Content-dependent support areas functions to buffer lexical content of logical arguments. These areas are content-dependent; for example, if the argument is talking about a face, then the inferior temporal cortex is involved. 


Structural Areas for Human Deductive Reasoning

1. Method: Compare activations elicited by complex vs. simpler inferences.
2. Reasoning: If linguistic structures are involved in inferential processes, complex deductions should recruit them significantly more than simpler ones; if not, then activations in language structures would be similar.
3. Results: Neural mechanisms underlying logic inferences dissociate from neural mechanisms underlying linguistic operations. Ideas are first unpacked into non-linguistic representations and then submitted to other regions for logical processing. 

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