Faith, truth and forgiveness: How your brain processes abstract thoughts

The human brain acts like an indexing system, organizing and integrating various thoughts to compose the meaning of abstract concepts.

Unveiling the Brain’s Role in Abstract Concept Formation: Insights from Carnegie Mellon University’s Machine Learning Study

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon used machine learning to analyze brain scans, revealing how abstract concepts like justice form.

Humans possess a unique ability to develop abstract concepts that lack a physical anchor, a skill we often overlook. Unlike concrete concepts, such as doors, which have a specific location in the brain related to perception and physical control, abstract concepts like ethical values do not have a dedicated brain region. Instead, the brain functions as an indexing system, integrating and composing meanings of these abstract ideas from various cognitive processes.

In this study, the researchers have revealed newly discovered components of meaning used by the human brain that behave like an indexing system, similar to a library’s card catalog, to formulate the meaning of abstract concepts.

The research team utilized functional MRI scans of nine participants’ brains and applied machine learning tools to analyze the data. By examining patterns linked to each of the 28 abstract concepts, the researchers uncovered how the brain encodes these intangible ideas. The machine learning algorithm then accurately identified each concept, demonstrating the brain’s capacity to process abstract thoughts through complex neural patterns. This approach reveals insights into how we mentally organize and understand abstract ideas.

Decoding Abstract Concepts: How Thoughts, Language, Reference, and Social Constructs Shape Neural Patterns

The brain formulates these abstract concepts through three dimensions of meaning. The first dimension refers to regions associated with language. For example, people associate the concept of ethics with words like rules and morals. A person must first understand the related words to create the additional meaning of ethics. The second dimension of the abstract concept is linked to reference, either to self or some external source. For example, spirituality is connected to self, while causality is external to the self. The final dimension corresponds to social constructs. There is an inherited social component to the concepts of pride and gossip.

Based on the study findings, researchers identified neural activation patterns for individual abstract concepts across people. It is rare for one person’s thoughts on probability or spirituality to align neurally with another’s, despite shared experiences of spirituality.