The Johns Hopkins University, USA.
J Cogn Neurosci. 2011 Oct;23(10):2905-19. doi: 10.1162/jocn.2011.21608. Epub 2011 Feb 3.
Organisms operate within both a perceptual domain of objects and events, and a mnemonic domain of past experiences and future goals. Each domain requires a deliberate selection of task-relevant information, through deployments of external (perceptual) and internal (mnemonic) attention, respectively. Little is known about the control of attention shifts in working memory, or whether voluntary control of attention in these two domains is subserved by a common or by distinct functional networks. We used human fMRI to examine the neural basis of cognitive control while participants shifted attention in vision and in working memory. We found that these acts of control recruit in common a subset of the dorsal fronto-parietal attentional control network, including the medial superior parietal lobule, intraparietal sulcus, and superior frontal sulcus/gyrus. Event-related multivoxel pattern classification reveals, however, that these regions exhibit distinct spatio-temporal patterns of neural activity during internal and external shifts of attention, respectively. These findings constrain theoretical accounts of selection in working memory and perception by showing that populations of neurons in dorsal fronto-parietal network regions exhibit selective tuning for acts of cognitive control in different cognitive domains.
生物体在感知领域的物体和事件，以及记忆领域的过去经验和未来目标中运作。每个领域都需要通过外部（感知）和内部（记忆）注意力的分别部署，来故意选择与任务相关的信息。对于工作记忆中注意力转移的控制，或者这两个领域中注意力的自愿控制是否由共同或不同的功能网络来支持，我们知之甚少。我们使用人类 fMRI 研究了参与者在视觉和工作记忆中转移注意力时的认知控制的神经基础。我们发现，这些控制行为共同招募了背侧额顶叶注意力控制网络的一部分，包括内侧顶叶上回、顶内沟和额上回/回。然而，基于事件的多体素模式分类显示，这些区域在内部和外部注意力转移期间分别表现出不同的时空模式的神经活动。这些发现通过表明背侧额顶叶网络区域的神经元群体对不同认知领域的认知控制行为表现出选择性调谐，从而限制了工作记忆和感知中的选择理论解释。
