Mismatches in Premises and Conclusion Affect Deductive Reasoning: A tDCS-ERP Study
EXPERIMED, cilt.16, sa.2, ss.80-89, 2026 (ESCI, TRDizin)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 16 Sayı: 2
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Doi Numarası: 10.26650/experimed.1828892
- Dergi Adı: EXPERIMED
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), TR DİZİN (ULAKBİM)
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.80-89
- Maltepe Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
Objective: This study aimed to examine the interfering effect of mismatches on deductive reasoning, measured bothbehaviorally and through event-related potentials (ERP), and whether anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)applied to the left prefrontal cortex (PFC) reduces this effect.Materials and Methods: This study involved 27 healthy right-handed participants, including 11 women, with a mean ageof 27.21 ± 6.76 years. Anodal stimulation was applied to the left PFC, while a cathode was placed on the right mastoid. Allparticipants completed inference tasks under both sham and anodal stimulation conditions. Within-group comparisonswere conducted to analyze behavioral performance and ERP recordings, which were compared between the sham andanodal stimulation conditions.Results: The results showed that the response rate for deductive inference tasks with the highest levels of mismatchsignificantly increased after anodal stimulation compared to sham stimulation. However, there was no significant differ-ence in reaction times between the two stimulation methods. Notably, the highest N2 wave in the frontal region wasobserved during tasks with the greatest level of mismatch. However, no significant differences in N2 amplitude or latencyassociated with anodal stimulation were detected.Conclusion: The findings of the study indicated that anodal tDCS has a limited effect on inference tasks that involvedifferent levels of mismatch. This may be due to a ceiling effect caused by selecting a relatively simple form of inferencedue to the control of confounding variables.