Open access
Date
2014-01-22Type
- Journal Article
Abstract
Analogies may arise from the conscious detection of similarities between a present and a past situation. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we tested whether young volunteers would detect analogies unconsciously between a current supraliminal (visible) and a past subliminal (invisible) situation. The subliminal encoding of the past situation precludes awareness of analogy detection in the current situation. First, participants encoded subliminal pairs of unrelated words in either one or nine encoding trials. Later, they judged the semantic fit of supraliminally presented new words that either retained a previously encoded semantic relation (“analog”) or not (“broken analog”). Words in analogs versus broken analogs were judged closer semantically, which indicates unconscious analogy detection. Hippocampal activity associated with subliminal encoding correlated with the behavioral measure of unconscious analogy detection. Analogs versus broken analogs were processed with reduced prefrontal but enhanced medial temporal activity. We conclude that analogous episodes can be detected even unconsciously drawing on the episodic memory network. Show more
Permanent link
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000080533Publication status
publishedExternal links
Journal / series
Frontiers in Behavioral NeuroscienceVolume
Pages / Article No.
Publisher
Frontiers MediaSubject
Analogical mapping; Consciousness; Episodic memory; Flexibility; Hippocampus; Medial temporal lobe; SubliminalOrganisational unit
03628 - Prüssmann, Klaas P. / Prüssmann, Klaas P.
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