Woolgar Alexandra, Zopf Regine
Perception in Action Research Centre and ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and Its Disorders, Department of Cognitive Science, Faculty of Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
Perception in Action Research Centre and ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and Its Disorders, Department of Cognitive Science, Faculty of Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
J Neurophysiol. 2017 Aug 1;118(2):703-716. doi: 10.1152/jn.00559.2016. Epub 2017 Apr 12.
At any given moment, our brains receive input from multiple senses. Successful behavior depends on our ability to prioritize the most important information and ignore the rest. A multiple-demand (MD) network of frontal and parietal regions is thought to support this process by adjusting to code information that is currently relevant (Duncan 2010). Accordingly, the network is proposed to encode a range of different types of information, including perceptual stimuli, task rules, and responses, as needed for the current cognitive operation. However, most MD research has used visual tasks, leaving limited information about whether these regions encode other sensory domains. We used multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data to test whether the MD regions code the details of somatosensory stimuli, in addition to tactile-motor response transformation rules and button-press responses. Participants performed a stimulus-response task in which they discriminated between two possible vibrotactile frequencies and applied a stimulus-response transformation rule to generate a button-press response. For MD regions, we found significant coding of tactile stimulus, rule, and response. Primary and secondary somatosensory regions encoded the tactile stimuli and the button-press responses but did not represent task rules. Our findings provide evidence that MD regions can code nonvisual somatosensory task information, commensurate with a domain-general role in cognitive control. How does the brain encode the breadth of information from our senses and use this to produce goal-directed behavior? A network of frontoparietal multiple-demand (MD) regions is implicated but has been studied almost exclusively in the context of visual tasks. We used multivariate pattern analysis of fMRI data to show that these regions encode tactile stimulus information, rules, and responses. This provides evidence for a domain-general role of the MD network in cognitive control.
在任何给定时刻，我们的大脑都会从多种感官接收输入信息。成功的行为取决于我们对最重要信息进行优先级排序并忽略其他信息的能力。额叶和顶叶区域的多需求（MD）网络被认为通过调整以编码当前相关信息来支持这一过程（邓肯，2010年）。因此，该网络被认为可以根据当前认知操作的需要，对一系列不同类型的信息进行编码，包括感知刺激、任务规则和反应。然而，大多数MD研究都使用视觉任务，关于这些区域是否编码其他感觉领域的信息，目前所知有限。我们使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）数据的多体素模式分析（MVPA）来测试MD区域是否除了触觉 - 运动反应转换规则和按键反应之外，还编码体感刺激的细节。参与者执行了一项刺激 - 反应任务，他们要区分两种可能的振动触觉频率，并应用刺激 - 反应转换规则来生成按键反应。对于MD区域，我们发现了触觉刺激、规则和反应的显著编码。初级和次级体感区域编码了触觉刺激和按键反应，但不代表任务规则。我们的研究结果提供了证据，表明MD区域可以编码非视觉的体感任务信息，这与认知控制中的领域通用作用相一致。大脑如何编码来自我们感官的广泛信息，并利用这些信息产生目标导向行为？额顶叶多需求（MD）区域网络与此有关，但几乎仅在视觉任务的背景下进行过研究。我们使用fMRI数据的多变量模式分析表明，这些区域编码触觉刺激信息、规则和反应。这为MD网络在认知控制中的领域通用作用提供了证据。
