Anterior cingulate cortex differently modulates frontoparietal functional connectivity between resting‐state and working memory tasks

Abstract

The brain frontoparietal regions and the functional communications between them are critical in supporting working memory and other executive functions. The functional connectivity between frontoparietal regions are modulated by working memory loads, and are shown to be modulated by a third brain region in resting‐state. However, it is largely unknown whether the third‐region modulations remain the same during working memory tasks or were largely modulated by task demands. In the current study, we collected functional MRI (fMRI) data when the subjects were performing n‐back tasks and in resting‐state. We first used a block‐designed localizer to define the frontoparietal regions that showed higher activations in the 2‐back than the 1‐back condition. Next, we performed physiophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis using left and right middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and superior parietal lobule (SPL) regions, respectively, in three continuous‐designed runs of resting‐state, 1‐back, and 2‐back conditions. No regions showed consistent modulatory interactions with the seed pairs in the three conditions. Instead, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) showed different modulatory interactions with the right MFG and SPL among the three conditions. While the increased activity of the ACC was associated with decreased functional coupling between the right MFG and SPL in resting‐state, it was associated with increased functional coupling in the 2‐back condition. The observed task modulations support the functional significance of the modulations of the ACC on frontoparietal connectivity.

Evoked and intrinsic brain network dynamics in children with autism spectrum disorder

“…A large literature supports the role of the M-CIN as a mediator of incoming stimuli, guiding appropriate behavioral responses ( Uddin, 2015 , Goulden et al, 2014 , Menon and Uddin, 2010 , Uddin and Menon, 2009 ). Specific regions of the M-CIN such as the ACC have also been shown to have varying modulatory interactions with brain regions during rest and task conditions ( Di et al, 2020 ). While atypical patterns of brain activation and connectivity of these networks have previously been documented in ASD ( Uddin et al, 2013 ), very few studies have examined network configurations as they change between rest and task states ( Uddin et al, 2015 ).…”

Capacity differences in working memory based on resting state brain networks

“…The ACC is reportedly involved in cognitive conflict monitoring during working memory performance [45][46][47][48] . A recent study also suggested that increased activity of the ACC was associated with increased functional coupling between the right middle FG and SPL while performing a working memory 2-back task 49,50 .…”

Early Stopping in Experimentation with Real-time Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Using a Modified Sequential Probability Ratio Test

“…This was based on a moderate length of experimentation for a 1-back block design (e.g. see (31-34)), allowing approximately 6 minutes for each difficulty level.The visual stimulus was presented using an in-house custom written program that was developed using the Python programming language (Python Software Foundation, https://www.python.org/) and libraries from Psychopy - an open source visual presentation program (35-37). The program connected to a Cedrus Lumina controller to receive stimulus responses from the subject and trigger pulses from the MRI scanner (outputted every dynamic).…”

“…This was based on a moderate length of experimentation for a 1-back block design (e.g. see (30)(31)(32)(33)), allowing 6 minutes for each task.…”