Cognitive, Linguistic & Psychological Science, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
Carney Institute for Brain Science, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
Nat Hum Behav. 2024 May;8(5):945-961. doi: 10.1038/s41562-024-01826-7. Epub 2024 Mar 8.
The complex challenges of our mental life require us to coordinate multiple forms of neural information processing. Recent behavioural studies have found that people can coordinate multiple forms of attention, but the underlying neural control process remains obscure. We hypothesized that the brain implements multivariate control by independently monitoring feature-specific difficulty and independently prioritizing feature-specific processing. During functional MRI, participants performed a parametric conflict task that separately tags target and distractor processing. Consistent with feature-specific monitoring, univariate analyses revealed spatially segregated encoding of target and distractor difficulty in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. Consistent with feature-specific attentional priority, our encoding geometry analysis revealed overlapping but orthogonal representations of target and distractor coherence in the intraparietal sulcus. Coherence representations were mediated by control demands and aligned with both performance and frontoparietal activity, consistent with top-down attention. Together, these findings provide evidence for the neural geometry necessary to coordinate multivariate cognitive control.
我们的心理生活面临着复杂的挑战，需要协调多种形式的神经信息处理。最近的行为研究发现，人们可以协调多种形式的注意力，但潜在的神经控制过程仍不清楚。我们假设大脑通过独立监测特征特异性难度和独立优先处理特征特异性信息来实现多变量控制。在功能磁共振成像期间，参与者执行了一个参数冲突任务，该任务分别标记目标和干扰处理。与特征特异性监测一致，单变量分析显示在背侧前扣带皮层中存在目标和干扰难度的空间分离编码。与特征特异性注意力优先级一致，我们的编码几何分析显示在顶内沟中存在目标和干扰相干性的重叠但正交表示。相干性表示受控制需求的影响，并与绩效和额顶叶活动一致，与自上而下的注意力一致。总的来说，这些发现为协调多变量认知控制所需的神经几何结构提供了证据。
