Lu Runhao, Dermody Nadene, Duncan John, Woolgar Alexandra
MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Commun Biol. 2024 Dec 18;7(1):1643. doi: 10.1038/s42003-024-07397-7.
Domain-general cognitive systems are essential for adaptive human behaviour, supporting various cognitive tasks through flexible neural mechanisms. While fMRI studies link frontoparietal network activation to increasing demands across various tasks, the electrophysiological mechanisms underlying this domain-general response to demand remain unclear. Here, we used MEG/EEG, and separated the aperiodic and oscillatory components of the signals to examine their roles in domain-general cognition across three cognitive tasks using multivariate analysis. We found that both aperiodic (broadband power, slope, and intercept) and oscillatory (theta, alpha, and beta power) components coded task demand and content across all subtasks. Aperiodic broadband power in particular strongly coded task demand, in a manner that generalised across all subtasks. Source estimation suggested that increasing cognitive demand decreased aperiodic broadband power across the brain, with the strongest modulations overlapping with the frontoparietal network. In contrast, oscillatory activity showed more localised patterns of modulation, primarily in frontal or occipital regions. These results provide insights into the electrophysiological underpinnings of human domain-general cognition, highlighting the critical role of aperiodic broadband power.
通用认知系统对于人类的适应性行为至关重要，它通过灵活的神经机制支持各种认知任务。虽然功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究将额顶叶网络激活与各种任务中不断增加的需求联系起来，但这种对需求的通用反应背后的电生理机制仍不清楚。在这里，我们使用脑磁图/脑电图（MEG/EEG），并分离信号的非周期性和振荡成分，以使用多变量分析研究它们在三个认知任务中的通用认知作用。我们发现，非周期性（宽带功率、斜率和截距）和振荡性（theta、alpha和beta功率）成分在所有子任务中都编码了任务需求和内容。特别是非周期性宽带功率以一种在所有子任务中通用的方式强烈编码任务需求。源估计表明，增加的认知需求会降低全脑的非周期性宽带功率，最强的调制与额顶叶网络重叠。相比之下，振荡活动表现出更局部化的调制模式，主要在额叶或枕叶区域。这些结果为人类通用认知的电生理基础提供了见解，突出了非周期性宽带功率的关键作用。
