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Abstract:
When light reaches the retina, the 'visual problem solving'
process begins that eventually leads to visual recognition. This
moment of recognition, the 'Eureka moment', must have neural
correlates: activity presumably shifts from areas involved in
problem solving to those involved in representation. We mapped the
brain areas involved in the 'eureka' experience and detailed their
temporal dynamics using both words and familiar faces. Six
observers were scanned in a 1.5T magnet while faces or words were
unveiled incrementally. Subjects pressed a button when they
recognized the face or the word. Results show that an area in
cingulate cortex and two areas in prefrontal cortex were
increasingly active up to the "Eureka" moment. However, after the
"Eureka" moment, activity in these areas declined while different
areas for words and faces in parietal and temporal cortices became
active. This shift of activation suggests a transition from working
memory activity to long term representations of the words or faces.
Interestingly, the same frontal areas were active before
recognition for both faces and words, yet different areas become
active after the recognition, suggesting that even though different
types of visual information are stored in different areas, there
are common "general problem solving regions" for a variety of
visual recognition tasks.
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