Cooper Patrick S, Darriba Álvaro, Karayanidis Frini, Barceló Francisco
Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory, School of Psychology, University of Newcastle, Australia; Priority Research Centre for Translational Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Newcastle, Australia.
Laboratory of Neuropsychology, University of the Balearic Islands, Mallorca, Spain.
Neuroimage. 2016 May 15;132:499-511. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.03.010. Epub 2016 Mar 11.
Flexible control of cognition bestows a remarkable adaptability to a broad range of contexts. While cognitive control is known to rely on frontoparietal neural architecture to achieve this flexibility, the neural mechanisms that allow such adaptability to context are poorly understood. In the current study, we quantified contextual demands on the cognitive control system via a priori estimation of information across three tasks varying in difficulty (oddball, go/nogo, and switch tasks) and compared neural responses across these different contexts. We report evidence of the involvement of multiple frequency bands during preparation and implementation of cognitive control. Specifically, a common frontoparietal delta and a central alpha process corresponded to rule implementation and motor response respectively. Interestingly, we found evidence of a frontal theta signature that was sensitive to increasing amounts of information and a posterior parietal alpha process only seen during anticipatory rule updating. Importantly, these neural signatures of context processing match proposed frontal hierarchies of control and together provide novel evidence of a complex interplay of multiple frequency bands underpinning flexible, contextually sensitive cognition.
对认知的灵活控制赋予了在广泛情境中显著的适应性。虽然已知认知控制依赖于额顶叶神经结构来实现这种灵活性，但允许这种情境适应性的神经机制却知之甚少。在当前的研究中，我们通过对三个难度不同的任务（oddball任务、go/nogo任务和切换任务）中的信息进行先验估计，量化了对认知控制系统的情境需求，并比较了这些不同情境下的神经反应。我们报告了在认知控制的准备和实施过程中多个频段参与的证据。具体而言，一个共同的额顶叶δ波和一个中央α波过程分别对应于规则实施和运动反应。有趣的是，我们发现了一个对信息量增加敏感的额叶θ波特征的证据，以及一个仅在预期规则更新期间出现的后顶叶α波过程。重要的是，这些情境处理的神经特征与提出的额叶控制层次结构相匹配，并共同提供了多个频段复杂相互作用的新证据，这种相互作用支撑着灵活的、情境敏感的认知。
