Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University.
Department of Psychology, Psychology and Neuroscience of Cognition Research Unit, University of Liège.
Top Cogn Sci. 2021 Jan;13(1):164-186. doi: 10.1111/tops.12450. Epub 2019 Sep 4.
The human brain is tightly coupled to the world through its sensory-motor systems-but it also spends a lot of its metabolism talking to itself. One important function of this intrinsic activity is the establishment and updating of event models-representations of the current situation that can predictively guide perception, learning, and action control. Here, we propose that event models largely depend on the default network (DN) midline core that includes the posterior cingulate and anterior medial prefrontal cortex. An increasing body of data indeed suggests that this subnetwork can facilitate stimuli processing during both naturalistic event comprehension and cognitive tasks in which mental representations of prior situations, trials, and task rules can predictively guide attention and performance. This midline core involvement in supporting predictions through event models can make sense of an otherwise complex and conflicting pattern of results regarding the possible cognitive functions subserved by the DN.
人类大脑通过其感觉运动系统与外界紧密相连——但它也花费大量代谢来进行自我对话。这种内在活动的一个重要功能是建立和更新事件模型——当前情况的表示，可以预测性地指导感知、学习和行为控制。在这里，我们提出事件模型在很大程度上依赖于默认网络（DN）中线核心，包括后扣带回和前内侧前额叶皮层。越来越多的数据确实表明，这个子网可以在自然事件理解和认知任务中促进刺激处理，在这些任务中，先前情况、试验和任务规则的心理表示可以预测性地引导注意力和表现。DN 中通过事件模型支持预测的中线核心参与，可以理解关于 DN 所服务的可能认知功能的复杂而冲突的结果模式。
