A system for relational reasoning in human prefrontal cortex

The integration of multiple relations between mental iq,resentations is critical for higher level cognition. For both deductive and inductive-reasoning tasks, patients with prefrontal damage exhibited a selective and catastrophic deficit ii? the integration of relations, whereas patients with anterior temporal lobe damage, marched for overall IQ but with intact prefrontal cortex, exhibited normal relational integration. In contrast, prefrontal patients performed more accurately than temporal patients on tests of both episodic memory and semantic knowledge. These double dissociations suggest that integration of relations is a specific source of cognitive complexity for which intact prefrontal cortex is essential. The integration of relations may be the fundamental common factor linking the diverse abilities that depend on prefrontal function, such as planning, problem solving, and fluid intelligence.