Laboratory of Clinical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dept. Surgical, Medical, Molecular Pathology and Critical Care, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
MOMILAB, IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, Italy.
Int J Psychophysiol. 2018 Jan;123:127-135. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2017.10.002. Epub 2017 Oct 5.
The disembedding ability (i.e., the ability to identify a simple masked figure within a complex one) depends on attentional mechanisms, executive functions and working memory. Recent cognitive models ascribed different levels of disembedding task performance to the efficiency of the subtended mental processes engaged during visuo-spatial perception. Here we aimed at assessing whether different levels of the disembedding ability were associated to the functional signatures of neural efficiency, defined as a specific modulation in response magnitude and functional connectivity strength in task-related areas. Consequently, brain activity evoked by a visual task involving the disembedding ability was acquired using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a sample of 23 right-handed healthy individuals. Brain activity was analyzed at different levels of information processing, from local responses to connectivity interactions between brain nodes, as far as to network topological properties. All different levels of information processing were significantly modulated by individual behavioral performance. Specifically, single voxel response magnitude, connectivity strength of the right intrahemispheric and interhemispheric edges, and graph measures (i.e., local and global efficiency) were negatively associated to behavioral performance. Altogether, these results indicate that efficiency during a disembedding task cannot be merely attributed to a reduced neural recruitment of task-specific regions, but can be better characterized as an enhanced functional hemispherical asymmetry.
去嵌入能力（即识别复杂图形中简单掩蔽图形的能力）取决于注意机制、执行功能和工作记忆。最近的认知模型将去嵌入任务表现的不同水平归因于在视空间感知过程中参与的潜在心理过程的效率。在这里，我们旨在评估不同水平的去嵌入能力是否与神经效率的功能特征相关，神经效率被定义为任务相关区域中响应幅度和功能连接强度的特定调制。因此，我们使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）在 23 名右利手健康个体的样本中获取了涉及去嵌入能力的视觉任务的大脑活动。对大脑活动进行了分析，分析了从局部反应到大脑节点之间的连通性相互作用，以及网络拓扑特性等不同信息处理水平。所有不同水平的信息处理都受到个体行为表现的显著调节。具体来说，单个体素的响应幅度、右半球内和半球间边缘的连通性强度以及图度量（即局部和全局效率）与行为表现呈负相关。总的来说，这些结果表明，在去嵌入任务期间的效率不能仅仅归因于特定任务区域的神经募集减少，而是可以更好地描述为增强的功能半球不对称性。
