The Influence Of Semantic Network Structure On Remote Analogical Reasoning And Its Brain Functional Basis

Creativity,as a great potential of human beings,is not only an important factor affecting individual development,but also the soul of a nation’s progress,an inexhaustible driving force for a nation’s continuous development,and a quality that human beings must have to overcome the challenges of an increasingly complex and uncertain world.Therefore,more effectively promote the development and cultivation of human creativity has an urgent and important significance.This depends on the further exploration of the mechanism of creation.An important feature of the creative process is the ability to find and make new connections between seemingly unrelated concepts.How this new connection is established has become one of the focuses of researchers in the field of creativity in recent years.Among them,the mechanism of analogical reasoning to establish new connections in the process of creation is an important issue that has attracted considerable attention.Creative analogical reasoning usually requires connecting different semantic domains or concepts with weak surface similarity,so highly abstract analogical mapping is required.Studies have shown that the semantic distance between the objects(concepts)of analogy is the key determinant of the creativity of analogy mapping.At the same time,in the semantic memory network,concepts are related by semantic similarity of different intensities,and different semantic similarity intensities reflect the distance of conceptual representation.When the semantic network structure of an individual is denser,it is easier for an individual to establish creative connections across different semantic domains that are far apart from each other,so as to carry out remote distance analogical reasoning,so as to generate the core process of useful innovation.Through three sets of studies,we explore the cognitive and neural basis of semantic distance on the basis of verifying the relationship between semantic distance and semantic network structure in analogical reasoning tasks.Study 1: the semantic distance involved in the process of analogical mapping is regarded as a continuum,and the materials are divided into within-domain analogical reasoning and cross-domain analogical reasoning according to different semantic fields,and the Chinese analogical reasoning materials were recompiled.20 subjects were invited to complete the preliminary compilation of the materials.The indexes of word frequency,familiarity,stroke,response accuracy,semantic distance between word pairs,difficulty of completion and creativity of the materials were screened,and the validity of the materials was verified through the correlation with the AUT task to determine the final analogical reasoning materials.The results showed that there was a significant positive correlation between semantic distance in cross-domain analogical reasoning and originality,but there was no significant correlation between semantic distance in within-domain analogical reasoning and originality.This result is consistent with previous research showing that analogical reasoning across semantic domains is generally considered to be a key mechanism for creativity.This result also confirms the reliability of the material.Study 2: the relationship between the structural attributes of individual semantic networks(i.e.,Average Length of the Shortest Path,Small-worldness,Global Efficiency,Modularity Index,Clustering Coefficient)analogical reasoning in different semantic domains was discussed.Participants completed the study in turn a compiled by the analogical reasoning tasks and semantic similarity(materials including 48 word,Participants had to drag all words outside the circle to the inside of the circle and arrange them according to the semantic similarity between the words within 5 minutes),according to participants in the semantic similarity of reaction,by using graph theory to calculate the individual graph theory indicators of the semantic network.The results showed that there is a significant negative relationship between the Modularity Index and Average Length of the Shortest Path semantic network of individuals and the semantic distance of cross-domain analogical reasoning,and there is no significant relationship with within-domain analogical reasoning;The Small-worldness,Global Efficiency,Clustering Coefficient of individual semantic networks are positively correlated with the semantic distance of cross-domain analogical reasoning,but have no significant relationship with the semantic distance of within-domain analogical reasoning.The results showed that the individuals with strong ability of remote analogy mapping have lower degree of semantic memory network differentiation,smaller Modularity Index and higher efficiency of information transmission.On the contrary,the semantic memory network of the individuals with weak remote analogy mapping ability has higher differentiation degree,higher Modularity Index,and more limited information transmission.Study 3: we explored the neural mechanism between the global efficiency of semantic network and the semantic distance of cross-domain analogical reasoning was explored.Firstly,the f MRI data of the subjects were collected,and the brain regions related to the Global Efficiency of the semantic network were analyzed by using SPM,and the Re Ho value of the related brain regions was extracted.Finally,a mediation model was established between the Global Efficiency of the semantic network、 the related brain regions and the semantic distance in cross-domain analogical reasoning.The results showed that the Global Efficiency of semantic network played a mediating role in the relationship between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and cross-domain analogical reasoning.The results showed that the influence of semantic memory network on remote analogy mapping is influenced by the ventromedial prefrontal cortex,and when the ventromedial prefrontal cortex has more spontaneous activity,the information transmission efficiency in the semantic memory network will be higher,which can promote the remote analogy mapping more.In conclusion,semantic distance is the main determinant of creative analogy mapping,and more creative individuals have more flexible semantic association networks.The ventromedial prefrontal cortex may be involved in the process of remote analogy mapping.