Numerical inductive reasoning has been considered as one of the most important higher cognitive functions of the human brain. Importantly, previous behavioral studies have consistently reported that one critical component of numerical inductive reasoning is checking, which often occurs when a discrepant element is discovered, and reprocessing is needed to determine whether the discrepancy is an error of the original series. However, less is known about the neural mechanism underlying the checking process. Given that the checking effect involves cognitive control processes, such as the incongruent resolution, that are linked to the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), this study hypothesizes that the right DLPFC may play a specific role in the checking process. To test the hypothesis, this study utilized the transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a non-invasive brain stimulation method that could modulate cortical excitability, and examined whether and how the stimulation of the right DLPFC via tDCS could modulate the checking effect during a number-series completion problem task. Ninety healthy participants were allocated to one of the anodal, cathodal, and sham groups. Subjects were required to verify whether number sequences formed rule-based series, and checking effect was assessed by the difference in performance between invalid and valid conditions. It was found that significantly longer response times (RTs) were exhibited in invalid condition compared with valid condition in groups of anodal, cathodal, and sham tDCS. Furthermore, the anodal tDCS significantly shortened the checking effect than those of the cathodal and sham groups, whereas no significantly prolonged checking effect was detected in the cathodal group. The current findings indicated that anodal tDCS affected the process of checking, which suggested that the right DLPFC might play a critical role in the checking process of numerical inductive reasoning by inhibiting incongruent response.

中文翻译：

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右背外侧前额叶皮层参与数值规则归纳：一项经颅直流电刺激研究

数值归纳推理被认为是人类大脑最重要的高级认知功能之一。重要的是，之前的行为研究一致报道，数值归纳推理的一个关键组成部分是检查，这通常发生在发现差异元素时，需要重新处理以确定差异是否是原始序列的错误。然而，人们对检查过程背后的神经机制知之甚少。鉴于检查效应涉及与右背外侧前额叶皮层 (DLPFC) 相关的认知控制过程，例如不一致的解决，本研究假设正确的 DLPFC 可能在检查过程中发挥特定作用。为了检验假设，本研究利用经颅直流电刺激 (tDCS)，一种可以调节皮质兴奋性的非侵入性脑刺激方法，并研究了通过 tDCS 刺激右侧 DLPFC 是否以及如何调节数字序列完成问题中的检查效果任务。90 名健康参与者被分配到阳极、阴极和假手术组之一。要求受试者验证数列是否形成基于规则的序列，并通过无效和有效条件之间的性能差异来评估检查效果。发现与阳极、阴极和假 tDCS 组中的有效条件相比，在无效条件下表现出显着更长的响应时间 (RT)。此外，与阴极组和假手术组相比，阳极 tDCS 显着缩短了检查效果，而在阴极组中未检测到显着延长的检查效果。目前的研究结果表明，阳极 tDCS 影响了检查过程，这表明正确的 DLPFC 可能通过抑制不一致的响应在数值归纳推理的检查过程中发挥关键作用。