In logical reasoning, difficulties in inhibition of currently-held beliefs may lead to unwarranted conclusions, known as belief bias. Aging is associated with difficulties in inhibitory control, which may lead to deficits in inhibition of currently-held beliefs. No study to date, however, has investigated the underlying neural substrates of age-related differences in logical reasoning and the impact of belief load. The aim of the present study was to delineate age differences in brain activity during a syllogistic logical reasoning task while the believability load of logical inferences was manipulated. Twenty-nine, healthy, younger and thirty, healthy, older adults (males and females) completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment in which they were asked to determine the logical validity of conclusions. Unlike younger adults, older adults engaged a large-scale network including anterior cingulate cortex and inferior frontal gyrus during conclusion stage. Our functional connectivity results suggest that while older adults engaged the anterior cingulate network to overcome their intuitive responses for believable inferences, the inferior frontal gyrus network contributed to higher control over responses during both believable and unbelievable conditions. Our functional results were further supported by structure-function-behavior analyses indicating the importance of cingulum bundle and uncinate fasciculus integrity in rejection of believable statements. These novel findings lend evidence for age-related differences in belief bias, with potentially important implications for decision making where currently-held beliefs and given assumptions are in conflict.

中文翻译：

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在逻辑推理任务中，与年龄和结构有关的前额叶网络的差异。

在逻辑推理中，难以抑制当前持有的信念可能导致无根据的结论，称为信念偏差。衰老与抑制控制的困难有关，这可能导致抑制目前持有的信念的缺陷。迄今为止，尚无研究调查与年龄相关的逻辑推理和信念负荷影响的潜在神经基质。本研究的目的是描述三段式逻辑推理任务中大脑活动的年龄差异，同时操纵逻辑推理的可信度。二十九岁，健康，年轻和三十岁，健康，老年人（男性和女性）完成了功能性磁共振成像实验，要求他们确定结论的逻辑有效性。不像年轻人 在结局阶段，老年人参与了一个大型网络，包括前扣带回皮质和额下回。我们的功能连通性结果表明，尽管老年人使用前扣带回网络以克服他们对可信推理的直觉反应，但额叶下陀螺网络有助于在可信和不可思议的情况下更好地控制反应。我们的功能结果得到结构-功能-行为分析的进一步支持，这些分析表明扣带束和束状束带完整性在拒绝可信陈述中的重要性。这些新颖的发现为与年龄相关的信念偏见提供了证据，对于当前持有的信念和给定的假设存在冲突的决策可能具有重要的意义。