SynthesisNeuroscience and biobehavioral reviews2018
Meta-analytic evidence for a core problem solving network across multiple representational domains.
Synthesis in Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled 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.
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.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 49 citations in OpenAlex.
- Understanding gender differences in reasoning and specific paradigm using meta-analysis of neuroimaging.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2024Pooled it
- Common and distinct brain activity associated with risky and ambiguous decision-making.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2020Pooled it
- The cortical and subcortical brain regions influence multitasking skills using immersive virtual reality simulation in experienced nurses.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Dynamic reconfiguration of brain coactivation states associated with active and lecture-based learning of university physics.NPJ science of learning · 2025Article
- Article
- Explainable deep-learning framework: decoding brain states and prediction of individual performance in false-belief task at early childhood stage.Frontiers in neuroinformatics · 2024Article
- Elucidating a statistical learning brain network: Coordinate-based meta-analyses and functional connectivity profiles of artificial grammar learning in healthy adults.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Motivational decline and proactive response under thermal environmental stress are related to emotion- and problem-focused coping, respectively: Questionnaire construction and fMRI study.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2023Article
- Students With High Metacognition Are Favourable Towards Individualism When Anxious.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- The cue-reactivity paradigm: An ensemble of networks driving attention and cognition when viewing drug and natural reward-related stimuli.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2021Review
- Planning deficits in Huntington's disease: A brain structural correlation by voxel-based morphometry.PloS one · 2021Article
- Brain Activations and Functional Connectivity Patterns Associated with Insight-Based and Analytical Anagram Solving.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- Simulating a Computational Biological Model, Rather Than Reading, Elicits Changes in Brain Activity during Biological Reasoning.CBE life sciences education · 2020Article
- Neural Correlates of Group Versus Individual Problem Solving Revealed by fMRI.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2020Article
- Brain activity links performance in science reasoning with conceptual approach.NPJ science of learning · 2019Article
- Toward a Neurobiological Basis for Understanding Learning in University Modeling Instruction Physics Courses.Frontiers in ICT (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Problem solving is a complex skill engaging multi-stepped reasoning processes to find unknown solutions. The breadth of real-world contexts requiring problem solving is mirrored by a similarly broad, yet unfocused neuroimaging literature, and the domain-general or context-specific brain networks associated with problem solving are not well understood. To more fully characterize those brain networks, we performed activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis on 280 neuroimaging problem solving experiments reporting 3166 foci from 1919 individuals across 131 papers. The general map of problem solving revealed broad fronto-cingulo-parietal convergence, regions similarly identified when considering separate mathematical, verbal, and visuospatial problem solving domain-specific analyses. Conjunction analysis revealed a common network supporting problem solving across diverse contexts, and difference maps distinguished functionally-selective sub-networks specific to task type. Our results suggest cooperation between representationally specialized sub-network and whole-brain systems provide a neural basis for problem solving, with the core network contributing general purpose resources to perform cognitive operations and manage problem demand. Further characterization of cross-network dynamics could inform neuroeducational studies on problem solving skill development.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.