The right hemisphere is involved with the integrative processes necessary to achieve global coherence during reasoning and discourse processing. Specifically, the right temporal lobe has been proven to facilitate the processing of distant associate relationships, such as generating novel ideas. Previous studies showed a specific swing of alpha and gamma oscillatory activity over the right parieto-occipital lobe and the right anterior temporal lobe respectively, when people solve semantic problems with a specific strategy, i.e., insight problem-solving. In this study, we investigated the specificity of the right parietal and temporal lobes for semantic integration using transcranial Random Noise Stimulation (tRNS). We administered a set of pure semantics (i.e., Compound Remote Associates [CRA]) and visuo-semantic problems (i.e., Rebus Puzzles) to a sample of 31 healthy volunteers. Behavioral results showed that tRNS stimulation over the right temporal lobe enhances CRA accuracy (+12%), while stimulation on the right parietal lobe causes a decrease of response time on the same task (−2,100 ms). No effects were detected for Rebus Puzzles. Our findings corroborate the involvement of the right temporal and parietal lobes when solving purely semantic problems but not when they involve visuo-semantic material, also providing causal evidence for their postulated different roles in the semantic integration process and promoting tRNS as a candidate tool to boost verbal reasoning in humans.

右脑参与了在推理和话语处理过程中实现全局连贯性所必需的综合过程。具体来说，右颞叶已被证明可以促进远距离关联关系的处理，例如产生新的想法。以前的研究表明，当人们使用特定策略（即洞察力问题解决）解决语义问题时，右顶枕叶和右前颞叶会分别出现特定的 α 和 γ 振荡活动。在这项研究中，我们使用经颅随机噪声刺激 (tRNS) 研究了右侧顶叶和颞叶在语义整合中的特异性。我们管理了一组纯语义（即 Compound Remote Associates [CRA]）和视觉语义问题（即，Rebus Puzzles) 对 31 名健康志愿者的样本。行为结果表明，右侧颞叶上的 tRNS 刺激提高了 CRA 准确度（+12%），而右侧顶叶上的刺激导致同一任务的响应时间减少（-2,100 毫秒）。Rebus Puzzles 未检测到任何影响。我们的研究结果证实了在解决纯语义问题时右侧颞叶和顶叶的参与，但在涉及视觉语义材料时则不然，也为它们在语义整合过程中假定的不同角色提供了因果证据，并促进 tRNS 作为增强的候选工具人类的语言推理。而对右侧顶叶的刺激会导致对同一任务的响应时间减少（-2,100 ms）。Rebus Puzzles 未检测到任何影响。我们的研究结果证实了在解决纯语义问题时右侧颞叶和顶叶的参与，但在涉及视觉语义材料时则不然，也为它们在语义整合过程中假定的不同角色提供了因果证据，并促进 tRNS 作为增强的候选工具人类的语言推理。而对右侧顶叶的刺激会导致对同一任务的响应时间减少（-2,100 ms）。Rebus Puzzles 未检测到任何影响。我们的研究结果证实了在解决纯语义问题时右侧颞叶和顶叶的参与，但在涉及视觉语义材料时则不然，也为它们在语义整合过程中假定的不同角色提供了因果证据，并促进 tRNS 作为增强的候选工具人类的语言推理。