Interaction between language and analogical reasoning from the brain imaging perspective

The main aim of this works is to explore the relationship between language and analogical reasoning. In fact, despite the increasing interest about the neural substrates of reasoning, at present no fMRI study systematically investigates the contribution of stimulus format/context on reasoning network. In the present work three fMRI studies are developed in order to verify how much reasoning relies on verbal language using different stimuli format and within normal and a language impaired populations. The first study focus on how different verbal context, nameable pictures versus words, may influence brain activity related to analogical reasoning in healthy adults. In a second study the same fMRI paradigm was applied to investigate brain activity during analogical reasoning in young normal readers and young dyslexics in order to understand if the reading disorder may influence the reasoning in relation to the language load requested by the stimulus format. In the third study the contribution of language and semantic system to reasoning was investigate developing a new fMRI design where analogical reasoning had to be performed either on meaningful or on abstract geometrical pictures.