Decomposing Components of Task Preparation with Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that the prefrontal cortex plays a major role in cognitive control processes. One important experimental paradigm for investigating such higher order cognitive control is the task-switching paradigm. This paradigm investigates the ability to switch flexibly between different task situations. In this context, it has been found that participants are able to anticipatorily prepare an upcoming task. This ability has been assumed to reflect endogenous cognitive control. However, it is difficult to isolate task preparation process from task execution using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In the present study, we introduce a new experimental manipulation to investigate task preparation with fMRI. By manipulating the number of times a task was prepared, we could demonstrate that the left inferior frontal junction (IFJ) area (near the junction of inferior frontal sulcus and inferior precentral sulcus), the right inferior frontal gyrus, and the right intraparietal sulcus are involved in task preparation. By manipulating the cue-task mapping, we could further show that this activation is not related to cue encoding but to the updating of the relevant task representation. Based on these and previous results, we assume that the IFJ area constitutes a functionally separable division of the lateral prefrontal cortex. Finally, our data suggest that task preparation does not differ for switch and repetition trials in paradigms with a high proportion of switch trials, casting doubt on the assumption that an independent task set reconfiguration process takes place in the preparation interval.

Task-order coordination in dual-task performance and the lateral prefrontal cortex: an event-related fMRI study

“…Thus, the converging evidence suggests that the LPFC might not only be associated with task-order scheduling in dual-task performance but in any situation requiring the coordination of different interfering tasks (Duncan, 2001;Grafman, 1995). This idea is also consistent with assumptions of Brass and von Cramon (2004) who recently suggested that the IFJ (junction of IFS and precentral sulcus) constitutes an unique prefrontal cortical area, which is specifically associated with context-related updating of the general task representation. Such an updating process is likely to be part of the task-order scheduling mechanism, which is required particularly if the external context switches in different-order trials compared to same-order trials.…”

“…Coull & Nobre, 1998;Herath, Klingberg, Young, Amunts, & Roland, 2001;Schubotz, Friederici, & von Cramon, 2000; see as well Schubert & Szameitat, 2003). Taken together, we think that task-order scheduling operates, at least partly, at the level of the tasks (see also Brass & von Cramon, 2004).…”

“…In more detail, the IFS might be related to the retrieval, implementation, and maintenance of the task set, i.e. the set of stimulusresponse associations (Brass & von Cramon, 2004;Bunge, Kahn, Wallis, Miller, & Wagner, 2003). Opposed to this, the posterior MFG might be related to monitoring (Petrides, Alivisatos, Meyer, & Evans, 1993), interference resolution (Bunge, Ochsner, Desmond, Glover, & Gabrieli, 2001), and the selection of the appropriate task (Rowe, Toni, Josephs, Frackowiak, & Passingham, 2000).…”

Domain-general involvement of the posterior frontolateral cortex in time-based resource-sharing in working memory: An fMRI study

“…The role of the IFJ in WM and cognitive control: Uploading relevant rule information As we mentioned before, studies have shown the IFJ to be crucially involved in cognitive control and, more specifically, in task switching (Brass and von Cramon, 2002, 2004a, 2004bBrass et al, 2005;Derrfuss et al, 2005;Dove et al, 2000;Kim et al, 2012;Sylvester et al, 2003). Studies have also observed the IFJ to be involved in interference control and updating (e.g., Braver et al, 1997;de Fockert et al, 2004;Derrfuss et al, 2004Derrfuss et al, , 2005Mead et al, 2002;Roth et al, 2009;Sylvester et al, 2003).…”

“…Task switching has been related to a fronto-parietal network (see Kim et al, 2012, for a meta-analysis). In the frontal cortex, one of the regions that have been most consistently observed in neuroimaging studies of task switching is the Inferior Frontal Junction (IFJ; Brass et al, 2005;Brass and von Cramon, 2002, 2004a, 2004bDerrfuss et al, 2005;Dove et al, 2000;Sylvester et al, 2003). The IFJ is situated at the junction of the precentral sulcus and the inferior frontal sulcus and, as such, anatomically perfectly suited for task switching and task management because it is located at the border of the premotor and prefrontal cortices (Brass and von Cramon, 2002).…”