Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34248525›Full record

SynthesisFrontiers in human neuroscience2021

Neural Correlates of Causal Inferences in Discourse Understanding and Logical Problem-Solving: A Meta-Analysis Study.

Wangshu Feng, Weijuan Wang, Jia Liu, Zhen Wang, Lingyun Tian, Lin Fan

Abstract readSystematic Review
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Frontiers in human neuroscience, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
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

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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

6 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. What a picture selection task can tell us about scalar implicature processing? A neuroimaging investigation.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025
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  3. Review
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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

6 authors.

Wangshu FengResearch Institute of Foreign Languages, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing, China.
Weijuan WangResearch Institute of Foreign Languages, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing, China.
Jia LiuResearch Institute of Foreign Languages, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing, China.
Zhen WangResearch Institute of Foreign Languages, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing, China.
Lingyun TianNational Research Centre for Foreign Language Education, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing, China.
Lin FanArtificial Intelligence and Human Languages Lab, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing, China.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In discourse comprehension, we need to draw inferences to make sense of discourse. Previous neuroimaging studies have investigated the neural correlates of causal inferences in discourse understanding. However, these findings have been divergent, and how these types of inferences are related to causal inferences in logical problem-solving remains unclear. Using the activation likelihood estimation (ALE) approach, the current meta-analysis analyzed 19 experiments on causal inferences in discourse understanding and 20 experiments on those in logical problem-solving to identify the neural correlates of these two cognitive processes and their shared and distinct neural correlates. We found that causal inferences in discourse comprehension recruited a left-lateralized frontotemporal brain system, including the left inferior frontal gyrus, the left middle temporal gyrus (MTG), and the bilateral medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), while causal inferences in logical problem-solving engaged a nonoverlapping brain system in the frontal and parietal cortex, including the left inferior frontal gyrus, the bilateral middle frontal gyri, the dorsal MPFC, and the left inferior parietal lobule (IPL). Furthermore, the pattern similarity analyses showed that causal inferences in discourse understanding were primarily related to the terms about language processing and theory-of-mind processing. Both types of inferences were found to be related to the terms about memory and executive function. These findings suggest that causal inferences in discourse understanding recruit distinct neural bases from those in logical problem-solving and rely more on semantic knowledge and social interaction experiences.

Indexed as

causal inferencesdiscourse understandingfrontotemporal networklogical problem-solvingmeta-analysisneuroimaging

Identifiers

PMID34248525
PMCPMC8261065

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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.