Evidence map›Paper›PMID 22288395›Full record

ArticleJournal of cognitive neuroscience2012

The human ventromedial prefrontal cortex is critical for transitive inference.

Timothy R Koscik, Daniel Tranel

Open access · greenAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
34citing papers in PubMed
2.3field-weighted citation impact, top 13% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

34 citing papers in PubMed, 67 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Trial
  2. Trial
  3. Article
  4. Cognitive Maps in the Prefrontal Cortex.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025
    Review
  5. Article
  6. Review
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Dissociable Roles of the Dorsolateral and Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex in Human Categorization.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024
    Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Is Necessary for Normal Associative Inference and Memory Integration.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2018
    Article
  17. Article
  18. Inferential Learning of Serial Order of Perceptual Categories by Rhesus Monkeys (The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2017
    Article
  19. Article
  20. Memory: Organization and Control.Annual review of psychology · 2017
    Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Timothy R KoscikUniversity of Iowa College of Medicine, IA, USA. t.koscik@utoronto.ca
Daniel Tranel
University of Iowa · US

Funding

Neuroeconomics and decision-makingP50NS019632 · NINDS · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · PI ANDERSON, STEVEN W · 2008 to 2011
$5.1M
Drug Abuse, Social Decision-Making, and Sex-Related Functional Brain AsymmetryR01DA022549 · NIDA · UNIVERSITY OF IOWA · PI TRANEL, DANIEL T. · 2006 to 2010
$1.7M
NIDA NIH HHS R01 DA022549NINDS NIH HHS P50 NS019632NINDS NIH HHS P50 NS19632
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

We hypothesized that the ventromedial pFC (vmPFC) is critical for making transitive inferences (e.g., the logical operation that if A > B and B > C, then A > C). To test this, participants with focal vmPFC damage, brain-damaged comparison participants, and neurologically normal participants completed a transitive inference task consisting an ordered set of arbitrary patterns. Participants first learned through trial-and-error the relationships of the patterns (e.g., Pattern A > Pattern B, Pattern B > Pattern C). After initial learning, participants were presented with novel pairings, some of which required transitive inference (e.g., Pattern A > Pattern C from the relationship above). We observed that vmPFC damage led to a specific deficit in transitive inference, suggesting that an intact vmPFC is necessary for making normal transitive inferences. Given the usefulness of transitivity in inferring social relationships, this deficit may be one of the basic features of social conduct problems associated with vmPFC damage.

Indexed as

AdultAgedAnalysis of VarianceBrain InjuriesConcept FormationExecutive FunctionFemaleFollow-Up StudiesFunctional LateralityHumansMagnetic Resonance ImagingMaleMiddle AgedPattern Recognition, VisualPhotic StimulationPrefrontal Cortex

Identifiers

PMID22288395
PMCPMC3626083
OpenAlexW1978864690

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.