A study claims to have captured the "Aha moment" of rats on an ECG-like electrode implants. Would this be capturing the cause or effect of Ni in the brain? http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/59137/title/Eureka%2C_brain_makes_real_mental_leaps
Not necessarily, "Aha moments" are not exclusive to Ni just because that is a common way to describe it. You could even have a Ti aha moment if everything suddenly clicks together in a logical order.
From a neurological perspective, has there ever been any linking done between viewable thought patterns and psychological cognitive functions? It seems too specific for where we are at in neuroscience at this time, but I don't know enough either.
Me either. The authors claimed these were 'aha moments', which I wasn't necessarily convinced of. I also agree that Ni isn't necessary the only owner of 'aha'. If we were to naively accept all of this stuff, then we might jump to the conclusion that propensity for Ni is the tendency to have very strong switches in brain paths. Ne might be the tendency to have lots of simultaneous weak net patterns. I think this direction of research still has a lot of work to do. In another 5 years there could be some really interesting results. I don't think neuroscientists take the jungian division of functions that seriously. If anything, this kind of work might define a new, more accurate set of functions, rather than the other way around.
Ne allows us to sense the connections between objects and concepts consciously, whereas Ni does so subconsciously. Ni is often at work on something even when we're just doing normal things. So when Ni finally connects all the dots on something, thats when we have the A-ha! momement -- usually its someplace like the shower, or driving or whenever.
