Investigating reasoning with multiple integrated neuroscientific methods.

[First paragraph] Recent years have seen increased application of functional MRI (fMRI), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and event-related potentials (ERP), to questions of human rationality. This has both illuminated the brain bases of these functions and contributed to theoretical advances (Goel, 2007; Prado et al., 2008). Most studies have, however, employed only one method and the developing literatures run somewhat parallel with only informal integration of results across methods. Results from other fields (Sarfeld et al., 2012) demonstrate the potential benefits of integration of multiple neuroscientific methods within studies of human reasoning, allowing findings from one method to influence the application of other methods, or constrain the interpretation of data derived therefrom. Including data on regional brain volume, structural and functional connectivity, individual differences and development and aging is particularly appropriate to the study of neural mechanisms of human reasoning, which are likely to be formed from networks of numerous widely-distributed brain regions. Here we briefly describe how the integration of several neuroscientific methods within a single study may advance investigations of the reasoning brain.