Taillan Julien, Ardiale Eléonore, Anton Jean-Luc, Nazarian Bruno, Félician Olivier, Lemaire Patrick
Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Aix-Marseille Université Marseille, France.
Centre d'IRM Fonctionnelle Cérébrale de Marseille, CHU Timone, INT - UMR 7289 Marseille, France.
Front Psychol. 2015 Feb 4;6:61. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00061. eCollection 2015.
This neuroimaging (functional magnetic resonance imaging) study investigated neural correlates of strategy selection. Young adults performed an arithmetic task in two different conditions. In both conditions, participants had to provide estimates of two-digit multiplication problems like 54 × 78. In the choice condition, participants had to select the better of two available rounding strategies, rounding-up (RU) strategy (i.e., doing 60 × 80 = 4,800) or rounding-down (RD) strategy (i.e., doing 50 × 70 = 3,500 to estimate product of 54 × 78). In the no-choice condition, participants did not have to select strategy on each problem but were told which strategy to use; they executed RU and RD strategies each on a series of problems. Participants also had a control task (i.e., providing correct products of multiplication problems like 40 × 50). Brain activations and performance were analyzed as a function of these conditions. Participants were able to frequently choose the better strategy in the choice condition; they were also slower when they executed the difficult RU than the easier RD. Neuroimaging data showed greater brain activations in right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and angular gyrus (ANG), when selecting (relative to executing) the better strategy on each problem. Moreover, RU was associated with more parietal cortex activation than RD. These results suggest an important role of fronto-parietal network in strategy selection and have important implications for our further understanding and modeling cognitive processes underlying strategy selection.
这项神经影像学（功能磁共振成像）研究调查了策略选择的神经关联。年轻人在两种不同条件下执行一项算术任务。在两种条件下，参与者都必须对诸如54×78这样的两位数乘法问题给出估算值。在选择条件下，参与者必须从两种可用的舍入策略中选择更好的策略，即向上舍入（RU）策略（即计算60×80 = 4800）或向下舍入（RD）策略（即计算50×70 = 3500来估算54×78的乘积）。在无选择条件下，参与者不必为每个问题选择策略，而是被告知使用哪种策略；他们在一系列问题上分别执行RU和RD策略。参与者还有一项控制任务（即给出诸如40×50这样的乘法问题的正确乘积）。根据这些条件对大脑激活情况和表现进行了分析。在选择条件下，参与者能够频繁地选择更好的策略；他们在执行难度较大的RU策略时也比执行较容易的RD策略时速度更慢。神经影像学数据显示，在对每个问题选择（相对于执行）更好的策略时，右侧前扣带回皮质（ACC）、背外侧前额叶皮质（DLPFC）和角回（ANG）有更强的大脑激活。此外，与RD策略相比，RU策略与更多的顶叶皮质激活相关。这些结果表明额顶网络在策略选择中起着重要作用，并且对于我们进一步理解和模拟策略选择背后的认知过程具有重要意义。
