TY - JOUR A1 - Wartenburger, Isabell A1 - Kühn, Esther A1 - Sassenberg, Uta A1 - Foth, Manja A1 - Franz, Elisabeth A. A1 - van der Meer, Elke T1 - On the relationship between fluid intelligence, gesture production, and brain structure N2 - Individuals scoring high in fluid intelligence tasks generally perform very efficiently in problem solving tasks and analogical reasoning tasks presumably because they are able to select the task-relevant information very quickly and focus on a limited set of task-relevant cognitive operations. Moreover, individuals with high fluid intelligence produce more representational hand and arm gestures when describing a geometric analogy task than individuals with average fluid intelligence. No study has yet addressed the relationship between intelligence, gesture production, and brain structure, to our knowledge. That was the purpose of our study. To characterize the relation between intelligence, gesture production, and brain structure we assessed the frequency of representational gestures and cortical thickness values in a group of adolescents differing in fluid intelligence. Individuals scoring high in fluid intelligence showed higher accuracy in the geometric analogy task and produced more representational gestures (in particular more movement gestures) when explaining how they solved the task and showed larger cortical thickness values in some regions in the left hemisphere (namely the pars opercularis, superior frontal, and temporal cortex) than individuals with average fluid intelligence. Moreover, the left pars opercularis (a part of Broca's area) and left transverse temporal cortex showed larger cortical thickness values in participants who produced representational and in particular movement gestures compared to those who did not. Our results thus indicate that cortical thickness of those brain regions is related to both high fluid intelligence and the production of gestures. Results are discussed in the gestures-as-simulated-action framework that states that gestures result from simulated perception and simulated action that underlie embodied language and mental imagery. Y1 - 2010 UR - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01602896 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2009.11.001 SN - 0160-2896 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wartenburger, Isabell A1 - Heekeren, Hauke R. A1 - Preusse, Franziska A1 - Kramer, Jürg A1 - van der Meer, Elke T1 - Cerebral correlates of analogical processing and their modulation by training N2 - There is increasing interest ill understanding the neural systems that mediate analogical thinking, which is essential for learning and fluid intelligence. The aim of the present study was to shed light on the cerebral correlates of geometric analogical processing and on training-induced changes at the behavioral and brain level. In healthy participants a bilateral fronto-parietal network was engaged in processing geometric analogies and showed greater blood oxygenation dependent (BOLD) signals as resource demands increased. This network, as well as fusiform and subcortical brain regions, additionally showed training-induced decreases in the BOLD signal over time. The general finding that brain regions were modulated by the amount of resources demanded by the task, and/or by the reduction of allocated resources due to short term training, reflects increased efficiency - in terms of more focal and more specialized brain activation - to more economically process the geometric analogies. Our data indicate a rapid adaptation of the cognitive system which is efficiently modulated by short term training based on a positive correlation of resource demands and brain activation. Y1 - 2009 UR - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/10538119 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.06.025 SN - 1053-8119 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - van der Meer, Elke A1 - Beyer, Reinhard A1 - Horn, Judith A1 - Foth, Manja A1 - Bornemann, Boris A1 - Ries, Jan A1 - Kramer, Jürg A1 - Warmuth, Elke A1 - Heekeren, Hauke R. A1 - Wartenburger, Isabell T1 - Resource allocation and fluid intelligence ; insights from pupillometry Y1 - 2010 UR - http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118485671/home?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0 SN - 0048-5772 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Preusse, Franziska A1 - van der Meer, Elke A1 - Deshpande, Gopikrishna A1 - Krüger, Frank A1 - Wartenburger, Isabell T1 - Fluid intelligence allows flexible recruitment of the parieto-frontal network in analogical reasoning JF - Frontiers in human neuroscienc N2 - Fluid intelligence is the ability to think flexibly and to understand abstract relations. People with high fluid intelligence (hi-fluIQ) perform better in analogical reasoning tasks than people with average fluid intelligence (ave-fluIQ). Although previous neuroimaging studies reported involvement of parietal and frontal brain regions in geometric analogical reasoning (which is a prototypical task for fluid intelligence), however, neuroimaging findings on geometric analogical reasoning in hi-fluIQ are sparse. Furthermore, evidence on the relation between brain activation and intelligence while solving cognitive tasks is contradictory. The present study was designed to elucidate the cerebral correlates of geometric analogical reasoning in a sample of hi-fluIQ and ave-fluIQ high school students. We employed a geometric analogical reasoning task with graded levels of task difficulty and confirmed the involvement of the parieto-frontal network in solving this task. In addition to characterizing the brain regions involved in geometric analogical reasoning in hi-fluIQ and ave-fluIQ, we found that blood oxygenation level dependency (BOLD) signal changes were greater for hi-fluIQ than for ave-fluIQ in parietal brain regions. However, ave-fluIQ showed greater BOLD signal changes in the anterior cingulate cortex and medial frontal gyrus than hi-fluIQ. Thus, we showed that a similar network of brain regions is involved in geometric analogical reasoning in both groups. Interestingly, the relation between brain activation and intelligence is not mono-directional, but rather, it is specific for each brain region. The negative brain activation-intelligence relationship in frontal brain regions in hi-fluIQ goes along with a better behavioral performance and reflects a lower demand for executive monitoring compared to ave-fluIQ individuals. In conclusion, our data indicate that flexibly modulating the extent of regional cerebral activity is characteristic for fluid intelligence. KW - high fluid intelligence KW - geometric analogical reasoning KW - task difficulty KW - functional magnetic resonance imaging KW - parieto-frontal network Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2011.00022 SN - 1662-5161 VL - 5 IS - 3 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Prehn, Kristin A1 - Wartenburger, Isabell A1 - Mériau, Katja A1 - Scheibe, Christina A1 - Goodenough, Oliver R. A1 - Villringer, Arno A1 - van der Meer, Elke A1 - Heekeren, Hauke R. T1 - Individual differences in moral judgment competence influence neural correlates of socio-normative judgments Y1 - 2008 UR - http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/content/by/year SN - 1749-5016 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mériau, Katja A1 - Wartenburger, Isabell A1 - Kazzer, Philipp A1 - Prehn, Kristin A1 - Villringer, Arno A1 - van der Meer, Elke A1 - Heekeren, Hauke R. T1 - Insular activity during passive viewing of aversive stimuli reflects individual differences in state negative affect N2 - People differ with regard to how they perceive, experience, and express negative affect. While trait negative affect reflects a stable, sustained personality trait, state negative affect represents a stimulus limited and temporally acute emotion. So far, little is known about the neural systems mediating the relationship between negative affect and acute emotion processing. To address this issue we investigated in a healthy female sample how individual differences in state negative affect are reflected in changes in blood oxygen level-dependent responses during passive viewing of emotional stimuli. To assess autonomic arousal we simultaneously recorded changes in skin conductance level. At the psychophysiological level we found increased skin conductance level in response to aversive relative to neutral pictures. However, there was no association of state negative affect with skin conductance level. At the neural level we found that high state negative affect was associated with increased left insular activity during passive viewing of aversive stimuli. The insula has been implicated in interoceptive processes and in the integration of sensory, visceral, and affective information thus contributing to subjective emotional experience. Greater recruitment of the insula in response to aversive relative to neutral stimuli in subjects with high state negative affect may represent increased processing of salient aversive stimuli. Y1 - 2009 UR - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02782626 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2008.05.006 SN - 0278-2626 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mériau, Katja A1 - Wartenburger, Isabell A1 - Kazzer, Philipp A1 - Prehn, Kristin A1 - Lammers, Claas-Hinrich A1 - van der Meer, Elke A1 - Villringer, Arno A1 - Heekeren, Hauke R. T1 - A neural network reflecting individual differences in cognitive processing of emotions during perceptual decision making Y1 - 2006 SN - 1053-8119 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Drummer, Janna-Deborah A1 - van der Meer, Elke A1 - Schaadt, Gesa T1 - Event-related potentials in response to violations of content and temporal event knowledge JF - Neuropsychologia : an international journal in behavioural and cognitive neuroscience N2 - Scripts that store knowledge of everyday events are fundamentally important for managing daily routines. Content event knowledge (i.e., knowledge about which events belong to a script) and temporal event knowledge (i.e., knowledge about the chronological order of events in a script) constitute qualitatively different forms of knowledge. However, there is limited information about each distinct process and the time course involved in accessing content and temporal event knowledge. Therefore, we analyzed event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to either correctly presented event sequences or event sequences that contained a content or temporal error. We found an N400, which was followed by a posteriorly distributed P600 in response to content errors in event sequences. By contrast, we did not find an N400 but an anteriorly distributed P600 in response to temporal errors in event sequences. Thus, the N400 seems to be elicited as a response to a general mismatch between an event and the established event model. We assume that the expectancy violation of content event knowledge, as indicated by the N400, induces the collapse of the established event model, a process indicated by the posterior P600. The expectancy violation of temporal event knowledge is assumed to induce an attempt to reorganize the event model in working memory, a process indicated by the frontal P600. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. KW - Event model KW - Content event knowledge KW - Temporal event knowledge KW - N400 KW - P600 Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.11.007 SN - 0028-3932 SN - 1873-3514 VL - 80 SP - 47 EP - 55 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dix, Annika A1 - Wartenburger, Isabell A1 - van der Meer, Elke T1 - The role of fluid intelligence and learning in analogical reasoning: How to become neurally efficient? JF - Neurobiology of learning and memory N2 - This study on analogical reasoning evaluates the impact of fluid intelligence on adaptive changes in neural efficiency over the course of an experiment and specifies the underlying cognitive processes. Grade 10 students (N = 80) solved unfamiliar geometric analogy tasks of varying difficulty. Neural efficiency was measured by the event-related desynchronization (ERD) in the alpha band, an indicator of cortical activity. Neural efficiency was defined as a low amount of cortical activity accompanying high performance during problem-solving. Students solved the tasks faster and more accurately the higher their FI was. Moreover, while high FI led to greater cortical activity in the first half of the experiment, high FI was associated with a neurally more efficient processing (i.e., better performance but same amount of cortical activity) in the second half of the experiment. Performance in difficult tasks improved over the course of the experiment for all students while neural efficiency increased for students with higher but decreased for students with lower fluid intelligence. Based on analyses of the alpha sub-bands, we argue that high fluid intelligence was associated with a stronger investment of attentional resource in the integration of information and the encoding of relations in this unfamiliar task in the first half of the experiment (lower-2 alpha band). Students with lower fluid intelligence seem to adapt their applied strategies over the course of the experiment (i.e., focusing on task-relevant information; lower-1 alpha band). Thus, the initially lower cortical activity and its increase in students with lower fluid intelligence might reflect the overcoming of mental overload that was present in the first half of the experiment. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. KW - Analogical reasoning KW - Short-term learning KW - Fluid intelligence KW - Neural efficiency KW - Alpha ERD/ERS Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nlm.2016.07.019 SN - 1074-7427 SN - 1095-9564 VL - 134 SP - 236 EP - 247 PB - Elsevier CY - San Diego ER -