Date: February 1, 2008 Creator: Schlund, Michael W.; Cataldo,
Michael F. & Hoehn-Saric, Rudolf Description: This article
discusses neural correlates of derived relational responding on
tests of stimulus equivalence. Background: An essential
component of cognition and language involves the formation of
new conditional relations between stimuli based upon prior
experiences. Results of investigations on transitive inference
(TI) highlight a prominent role for the medial temporal lobe in
maintaining associative relations among sequentially arranged
stimuli (A > B > C > D > E). In this investigation, medial
temporal lobe activity was assessed while subjects completed
"Stimulus Equivalence" (SE) tests that required deriving
conditional relations among stimuli within a class (A ≡ B ≡ C).
Methods: Stimuli consisted of six consonant-vowel-consonant
triads divided into two classes (A1, B1, C1; A2, B2, C2). A
simultaneous matching-to-sample task and differential
reinforcement were employed during pretraining to establis