Brain and Cognition, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, 3000, Leuven, Belgium; Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 1050, Brussels, Belgium; Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, 9000, Ghent, Belgium.
Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, 9000, Ghent, Belgium.
Neuroimage. 2019 Apr 1;189:755-762. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.02.004. Epub 2019 Feb 5.
To efficiently deal with quickly changing task demands, we often need to organize our behaviour on different time scales. For example, to ignore irrelevant and select relevant information, cognitive control might be applied in reactive (short time scale) or proactive (long time scale) mode. These two control modes play a pivotal role in cognitive-neuroscientific theorizing but the temporal dissociation of the underlying neural mechanisms is not well established empirically. In this fMRI study, a cognitive control task was administered in contexts with mainly congruent (MC) and mainly incongruent (MI) trials to induce reactive and proactive control, respectively. Based on behavioural profiles, we expected cognitive control in the MC context to be characterized by transient activity (measured on-trial) in task-relevant areas. In the MI context, cognitive control was expected to be reflected in sustained activity (measured in the intertrial interval) in similar or different areas. Results show that in the MC context, on-trial transient activity (incongruent - congruent trials) was increased in fronto-parietal areas, compared to the MI context. These areas included dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and intraparietal sulcus (IPS). In the MI context, sustained activity in similar fronto-parietal areas during the intertrial interval was increased, compared to the MC context. These results illuminate how context-dependent reactive and proactive control subtend the same brain areas but operate on different time scales.
为了有效地应对快速变化的任务需求，我们经常需要在不同的时间尺度上组织我们的行为。例如，为了忽略不相关的信息并选择相关的信息，认知控制可能会以反应性（短时间尺度）或前瞻性（长时间尺度）的模式进行应用。这两种控制模式在认知神经科学理论中起着关键作用，但潜在神经机制的时间分离在经验上尚未得到很好的确定。在这项 fMRI 研究中，在主要一致（MC）和主要不一致（MI）试验的背景下进行认知控制任务，分别诱导反应性和前瞻性控制。根据行为特征，我们预计 MC 情境中的认知控制将以任务相关区域的瞬态活动（在试验中测量）为特征。在 MI 情境中，认知控制预计将反映在相似或不同区域的试验间间隔中的持续活动。结果表明，在 MC 情境中，与 MI 情境相比，额顶叶区域的试验间瞬态活动（不一致 - 一致试验）增加。这些区域包括背外侧前额叶皮层（dlPFC）和顶内沟（IPS）。在 MI 情境中，与 MC 情境相比，试验间间隔期间相似的额顶叶区域的持续活动增加。这些结果阐明了上下文相关的反应性和前瞻性控制如何在不同的时间尺度上支撑相同的大脑区域。
