Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Hum Brain Mapp. 2012 Mar;33(3):639-51. doi: 10.1002/hbm.21234. Epub 2011 Mar 9.
In daily life, we permanently need to adapt our behavior to new task situations, requiring cognitive control. Such adaptive processes are commonly investigated with the task-switching paradigm. Many fMRI studies have interpreted stronger activation for switch than repeat trials in fronto-parietal brain areas as reflecting an active reconfiguration process in switch trials, tuning the cognitive system for proper task execution. From the single cell literature, however, one could deduce the alternative interpretation that switch-specific activity reflects reduced brain activity in repeat trials due to adaptation. These alternative explanations cannot be distinguished by simply comparing brain activity in switch and repeat trials. Therefore, we used a parametric approach to examine which interpretation is more powerful to account for the data. In all areas of the fronto-parietal network, adaptation explained the data better than reconfiguration. Therefore, our results call the classical reconfiguration interpretation into question and provide first evidence for adaptation of abstract task representations.
在日常生活中，我们需要不断适应新的任务情境，这需要认知控制。这种适应性过程通常用任务转换范式来研究。许多 fMRI 研究将额顶叶脑区中转换试次比重复试次更强的激活解释为反映了转换试次中认知系统的主动重新配置过程，以适应适当的任务执行。然而，从单细胞文献中可以推断出另一种解释，即由于适应，重复试次中的特异性活动反映了大脑活动的减少。通过简单地比较转换试次和重复试次中的大脑活动，无法区分这些替代解释。因此，我们使用参数方法来检验哪种解释更能解释数据。在前顶叶网络的所有区域中，适应比重新配置更能解释数据。因此，我们的结果对经典的重新配置解释提出了质疑，并为抽象任务表示的适应提供了第一个证据。
