Laboratory of Neuroimaging and Multimodal Analysis, Mental Health Research Center, Moscow, Russia.
Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, United States of America.
Int J Psychophysiol. 2020 May;151:70-79. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2020.02.013. Epub 2020 Feb 25.
The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) orchestrates other brain regions and plays a vital role for "the most uniquely human" executive functions (EFs), which are divided into distinct components. Components of EFs have been localized to different brain regions and at the same time the DLPFC was found to be involved in a majority of EF components. The possible mechanism of the DLPFC's contribution to EF components might be found in DLPFC functional connectivity (FC): this FC of the DLPFC with other brain regions contributes to different EF components.
To explore the DLPFC FC contribution to different EFs, we used an integrative approach involving analysis of fMRI and neuropsychological assessment of EFs. Fifty healthy adults (27 females and 23 males, mean age 34.5 ± 16.6 years) underwent neuropsychological assessment of EFs as well as task-based and resting-state fMRI. Task-based fMRI was applied as a functional localizer for individually defined DLPFC ROIs that were further used for the FC seed-based correlation analysis of the resting-state data. Then we looked for associations between individual scores of different EF components and the whole-brain resting-state FC of the DLPFC.
Resting-state correlates of DLPFC FC were revealed for three out of the seven EF components derived from an extensive neuropsychological assessment: inhibition, switching, and the verbal EF component.
Our study is the first to reveal the contribution of the DLPFC FC to several distinct EF components. The obtained results give insight into the brain mechanisms of EFs.
背外侧前额叶皮层（DLPFC）协调其他大脑区域，对“最具人类独特性”的执行功能（EFs）发挥着至关重要的作用，EFs 可分为不同的组成部分。EFs 的组成部分已被定位到不同的大脑区域，同时发现 DLPFC 参与了大多数 EF 成分。DLPFC 对 EF 成分的贡献的可能机制可能存在于 DLPFC 功能连接（FC）中：DLPFC 与其他大脑区域的这种 FC 有助于不同的 EF 成分。
为了探究 DLPFC FC 对不同 EF 的贡献，我们采用了一种综合方法，包括 fMRI 分析和 EF 的神经心理学评估。50 名健康成年人（27 名女性和 23 名男性，平均年龄 34.5±16.6 岁）接受了 EF 的神经心理学评估以及基于任务和静息状态 fMRI。基于任务的 fMRI 被用作个体定义的 DLPFC ROI 的功能定位器，这些 ROI 进一步用于静息状态数据的 FC 种子相关分析。然后，我们寻找不同 EF 成分的个体得分与 DLPFC 全脑静息状态 FC 之间的关联。
从广泛的神经心理学评估中得出的七个 EF 成分中的三个成分，即抑制、转换和言语 EF 成分，揭示了与 DLPFC FC 的静息状态相关性。
我们的研究首次揭示了 DLPFC FC 对几个不同的 EF 成分的贡献。所获得的结果深入了解了 EF 的大脑机制。
