ICNAS/CIBIT, Coimbra Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Azinhaga de Santa Comba, 3000-548, Coimbra, Portugal.
CNC.IBILI, Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, 3000-548, Coimbra, Portugal.
Brain Imaging Behav. 2019 Jun;13(3):623-637. doi: 10.1007/s11682-018-9885-1.
Software programming is a complex and relatively recent human activity, involving the integration of mathematical, recursive thinking and language processing. The neural correlates of this recent human activity are still poorly understood. Error monitoring during this type of task, requiring the integration of language, logical symbol manipulation and other mathematical skills, is particularly challenging. We therefore aimed to investigate the neural correlates of decision-making during source code understanding and mental manipulation in professional participants with high expertise. The present fMRI study directly addressed error monitoring during source code comprehension, expert bug detection and decision-making. We used C code, which triggers the same sort of processing irrespective of the native language of the programmer. We discovered a distinct role for the insula in bug monitoring and detection and a novel connectivity pattern that goes beyond the expected activation pattern evoked by source code understanding in semantic language and mathematical processing regions. Importantly, insula activity levels were critically related to the quality of error detection, involving intuition, as signalled by reported initial bug suspicion, prior to final decision and bug detection. Activity in this salience network (SN) region evoked by bug suspicion was predictive of bug detection precision, suggesting that it encodes the quality of the behavioral evidence. Connectivity analysis provided evidence for top-down circuit "reutilization" stemming from anterior cingulate cortex (BA32), a core region in the SN that evolved for complex error monitoring such as required for this type of recent human activity. Cingulate (BA32) and anterolateral (BA10) frontal regions causally modulated decision processes in the insula, which in turn was related to activity of math processing regions in early parietal cortex. In other words, earlier brain regions used during evolution for other functions seem to be reutilized in a top-down manner for a new complex function, in an analogous manner as described for other cultural creations such as reading and literacy.
软件编程是一项复杂且相对较新的人类活动，涉及数学、递归思维和语言处理的整合。这种最近的人类活动的神经相关性仍然知之甚少。在这种类型的任务中，错误监控要求整合语言、逻辑符号操作和其他数学技能，特别具有挑战性。因此，我们旨在研究具有高专业知识的专业参与者在源代码理解和心理操作过程中的决策的神经相关性。本 fMRI 研究直接解决了源代码理解过程中的错误监控、专家错误检测和决策问题。我们使用 C 代码，它会触发与程序员的母语无关的相同处理。我们发现脑岛在错误监控和检测中具有独特的作用，并且存在一种新的连通模式，超越了在语义语言和数学处理区域中理解源代码所引起的预期激活模式。重要的是，脑岛活动水平与错误检测的质量密切相关，涉及直觉，如最初的错误怀疑所报告的那样，在最终决策和错误检测之前。由错误怀疑引起的这个突显网络 (SN) 区域的活动与错误检测的精度密切相关，表明它编码了行为证据的质量。连通性分析提供了证据，表明源自前扣带皮层 (BA32) 的自上而下电路“再利用”，这是突显网络的核心区域，用于复杂的错误监控，如这种最近的人类活动所需要的。扣带（BA32）和前外侧（BA10）额叶区域因果性地调节了脑岛中的决策过程，而脑岛又与早期顶叶皮层中的数学处理区域的活动相关。换句话说，在进化过程中用于其他功能的早期大脑区域似乎以自上而下的方式被重新用于新的复杂功能，类似于为其他文化创造（如阅读和读写能力）所描述的方式。
