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Brain Advance Access published online on February 19, 2004
Brain, doi:10.1093/brain/awh086
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© 2004 The Guarantors of Brain

Article

Asymmetrical involvement of frontal lobes in social reasoning

Vinod Goel 1*, Jeffrey Shuren 2, Laura Sheesley 3, and Jordan Grafman 3

1 Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
2 Cognitive Neuroscience Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA; Office of Policy, Food and Drug Administration, Rockville, Maryland, USA
3 Cognitive Neuroscience Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA

* Corresponding author. E-mail: vgoel{at}yorku.ca.

Received 24 June 2003 ; revised 29 September 2003 ; accepted 1 December 2003

Abstract

The frontal lobes are widely implicated in logical reasoning. Recent neuroimaging studies suggest that frontal lobe involvement in reasoning is asymmetric (L>R) and increases with the presence of familiar, meaningful content in the reasoning situation. However, neuroimaging data can only provide sufficiency criteria. To determine the necessity of prefrontal involvement in logical reasoning, we tested 19 patients with focal frontal lobe lesions and 19 age- and education-matched normal controls on the Wason Card Selection Task, while manipulating social knowledge. Patients and controls performed equivalently on the arbitrary rule condition. Normal controls showed the expected improvement in the social knowledge conditions, but frontal lobe patients failed to show this facilitation in performance. Furthermore, left hemisphere patients were more affected than right hemisphere patients, suggesting that frontal lobe involvement in reasoning is asymmetric (L>R) and necessary for reasoning about social situations.

Keywords: reasoning; frontal lobes; Wason selection task; social knowledge
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