The role of conceptual priming stimuli in scientific reasoning: an fNIRS study

This study investigated how conceptual priming modulates inhibitory control during scientific reasoning in the mathematical domain. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) measured hemodynamic changes in inhibition-related brain regions in 30 participants performing rapid reasoning tasks under priming conditions. Behavioural results indicated that, after judging an incongruent priming item, participants showed significantly prolonged response times to incongruent scientific statements, whereas response times to incongruent non-scientific statements were significantly shortened. The fNIRS findings showed that, after judging an incongruent priming item, participants exhibited significantly increased activation in inhibition-related regions—including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA)—when reasoning about incongruent non-scientific statements, whereas only the DLPFC showed significantly increased activation when reasoning about incongruent scientific statements. These results indicate that conceptual conflict priming is associated with the modulation of inhibition-centered executive control, providing evidence consistent with a facilitatory effect on scientific reasoning under incongruent conditions rather than a direct causal enhancement.