Hodgson Victoria J, Ralph Matthew A Lambon, Jackson Rebecca L
MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Department of Psychology & York Biomedical Research Institute, University of York, York, United Kingdom.
Imaging Neurosci (Camb). 2024 Feb 12;2. doi: 10.1162/imag_a_00092. eCollection 2024.
Control processes are critical for the context-appropriate use of meaningful stimuli. Similar definitions have been adopted in two distinct literatures focusing on identifying the neural correlates of "semantic control" and of executive control across domains (the "multiple demand network"). Surprisingly, despite their proposed functions varying only in relation to domain-specificity, these networks appear to differ anatomically. However, prior comparisons are confounded by variations in task design. To what extent might varying task requirements drive differences in activation patterns that are typically attributed to stimulus domain? Here, for the first time, we use functional MRI to disentangle the effects of task process and stimulus domain during cognitively demanding tasks. Participants performed an odd-one-out task requiring rule-switching, inhibition and selection processes, and an -back working memory task, each with meaningful semantic and non-semantic stimuli, in a factorial design. Both stimulus domain and task process affected the control regions activated, indicating that task process is indeed a key factor confounding prior studies. However, core semantic control regions (left inferior frontal gyrus, left posterior temporal cortex) also showed a preference for semantic stimuli even with matched task processes, while more peripheral semantic control regions, overlapping the multiple demand network (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, right inferior frontal gyrus), showed little preference across task or stimulus. Conversely, most multiple demand network regions were preferentially engaged for non-semantic stimuli. These results highlight the mutual importance of stimulus domain and task process in driving variation in control region engagement, both across and between semantic control and multiple demand networks.
控制过程对于有意义刺激的情境适当使用至关重要。在专注于识别“语义控制”和跨领域执行控制（“多重需求网络”）的神经关联的两个不同文献中，采用了类似的定义。令人惊讶的是，尽管它们所提出的功能仅在与领域特异性相关方面有所不同，但这些网络在解剖结构上似乎存在差异。然而，先前的比较因任务设计的变化而混淆。不同的任务要求在多大程度上可能导致通常归因于刺激领域的激活模式差异？在这里，我们首次使用功能磁共振成像来区分认知要求较高任务期间任务过程和刺激领域的影响。参与者在析因设计中执行了一个需要规则切换、抑制和选择过程的异类排除任务，以及一个n-back工作记忆任务，每个任务都有有意义的语义和非语义刺激。刺激领域和任务过程都影响了激活的控制区域，表明任务过程确实是混淆先前研究的一个关键因素。然而，核心语义控制区域（左下额叶回、左后颞叶皮层）即使在任务过程匹配的情况下也对语义刺激表现出偏好，而与多重需求网络重叠的更多外周语义控制区域（背内侧前额叶皮层、右下额叶回）在任务或刺激方面几乎没有偏好。相反，大多数多重需求网络区域优先参与非语义刺激。这些结果突出了刺激领域和任务过程在驱动控制区域参与变化方面的相互重要性，无论是在语义控制和多重需求网络之间还是内部。
