Decoding cognitive control in human parietal cortex

Abstract

Efficient execution of perceptual-motor tasks requires rapid voluntary reconfiguration of cognitive task sets as circumstances unfold. Such acts of cognitive control, which are thought to rely on a network of cortical regions in prefrontal and posterior parietal cortex, include voluntary shifts of attention among perceptual inputs or among memory representations, or switches between categorization or stimulus-response mapping rules. A critical unanswered question is whether task set shifts in these different domains are controlled by a common, domain-independent mechanism or by separate, domain-specific mechanisms. Recent studies have implicated a common region of medial superior parietal lobule (mSPL) as a domain-independent source of cognitive control during shifts between perceptual, mnemonic, and rule representations. Here, we use fMRI and event-related multivoxel pattern classification to show that spatial patterns of brain activity within mSPL reliably express which of several domains of cognitive control is at play on a moment-by-moment basis. Critically, these spatiotemporal brain patterns are stable over time within subjects tested several months apart and across a variety of tasks, including shifting visuospatial attention, switching categorization rules, and shifting attention in working memory.fMRI ͉ pattern classification ͉ task switching ͉ working memory E ffective goal-directed behavior requires organisms to manage and coordinate the perceptual, cognitive, and motor processes required by ongoing tasks. Efforts to unravel the neural circuits responsible for rapid and efficient cognitive control have revealed that regions of dorsolateral and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and posterior parietal cortex subserve different aspects of control, including the maintenance of working memory representations of task sets (1, 2), detection and management of perceptual, cognitive, or response conflict (3) and the initiation of task set reconfiguration (4, 5).Frequent reconfiguration of the mind/brain in one or more domains is required as goals and environmental demands change. These domains may include, for example, states of attention that select task-relevant sensory or mnemonic information; categorization rules that can be applied to an attended perceptual input; and/or stimulus-response mapping rules that specify a taskappropriate response after perception and categorization. Transitions between task sets (e.g., shifting attention or switching categorization rule) are accomplished through voluntary acts of cognitive control. The psychological and neurophysiological basis of task set shifting has been investigated with behavioral and neuroimaging techniques (4-8).A critical unresolved question concerns whether task set reconfiguration in different cognitive domains is associated with multiple domain-specific control mechanisms or with a common, domainindependent control mechanism. According to the domain-specific account, distinct dedicated brain regions control task set shifts in different cognitive domains ...

Functional and structural architecture of the human dorsal frontoparietal attention network

“…and supplementary motor cortex in general (27), as well as taskswitching, in which the SEF and SPL play prominent roles (28,29). In comparison, evidence suggests that the FEF and IPS contain a salience map in gaze-centered coordinates that helps guide exploration of the visual environment (16,30,31), consistent with our mapping of the FEF-IPS2 pathway.…”

Spontaneous Fluctuations in the Flexible Control of Covert Attention

“…Both self-reported low task engagement during repetitive and boring sustained attention tasks (Christoff et al, 2009) and behavioral slowing in perceptual judgments requiring the focus of attention (Weissman et al, 2006) have been associated with increased DMN activity. Moreover, elevated prestimulus DMN activity has been associated with increased behavioral error rates (Eichele et al, 2008;Li et al, 2007). Our post-cue results, therefore, complement these prior findings, suggesting that high DMN activity is, under some circumstances, associated with impaired stimulus detection.…”

“…Attentional selection shapes our awareness of the world around us such that physically salient, reward-associated, or goal-relevant stimuli receive preferential representation within the brain and strongly influence our behavior (Desimone and Duncan, 1995;Reynolds et al, 1999;Anderson et al, 2011;Sali et al, 2014). Dysfunctions of attentional control such as lapses of attention, perseveration, and distraction are frequently associated with a variety of clinical syndromes such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; Barkley et al, 1997), substance abuse (Cools, 2008), and obesity (Volkow et al, 2011).…”

Working memory is not fixed-capacity: More active storage capacity for real-world objects than for simple stimuli

“…This may reduce interference and allow for more information to be remembered. Importantly, the attentional refreshing mechanism involved in visual working memory is not the same as the attentional mechanisms used to perform other visual tasks, although both have a common parietal focus (44). For example, during the delay period of a visual working memory task, participants are relatively unaffected by having to perform other attentional demanding tasks if they do not tap into working memory per se (45).…”