Neural Development of Deductive Reasoning

Neural Development of Deductive Reasoning: an fMRI Study of Relational and Categorical Reasoning in Children

Status

UNKNOWN

Phases

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT02763657

Acronym

NEUREAS

Enrollment

Registered

2016-05-05

Start date

2013-10-31

Completion date

2016-12-31

Last updated

2016-05-05

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Healthy Volunteers

Keywords

fMRI, reasoning, development

Brief summary

Children's understanding of linear-order (e.g., Dan is taller than Lisa, Lisa is taller than Jess) and set-inclusion (i.e., All tulips are flowers, All flowers are plants) relationships is critical for the acquisition of deductive reasoning, that is, the ability to reach logically valid conclusions from given premises. Behavioral and neuroimaging studies in adults suggest processing differences between these relations: While arguments that involve linear-orders may be preferentially associated with spatial processing, arguments that involve set-inclusions may be preferentially associated with verbal processing. In this study, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate how and when these processing differences appear in children from 8 to 14.

Interventions

OTHERfMRI scanning

All participants are scanned while evaluating linear-order and set-inclusion reasoning problems

Study design

Allocation

Intervention model

SINGLE_GROUP

Primary purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

8 Years to 14 Years

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Inclusion criteria

* Right-handed * Affiliated to the French social security * Whose parents gave informed consent

Exclusion criteria

* Neurological disorders * Psychiatric disorders * Birth complications requiring admission into neonatal intensive care unit * Medication affecting central nervous system processing * Significant hearing impairment * Uncorrected visual impairment * Non-native English speaker * Contraindications for MRI

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Identification of brain regions engaged in linear-order and set-inclusion reasoning	30 days	Brain activity measured using fMRI

Secondary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Degree of overlap between brain regions involved in linear-order and set-inclusion reasoning	30 days	Degree of overlap in brain activity measured using fMRI

Countries

France

Contacts

Primary ContactChristian SCHEIBER, Pr, MD

christian.scheiber@chu-lyon.fr4 72 68 49 61

Backup ContactJustine EPINAT, CRA

jepinat@isc.cnrs.fr4 37 91 12 64

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026