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The Involvement of the Multiple Demand and Default Mode Networks in a Trial-by-Trial Cognitive Control.

Shinyoung Jung, Joo Yeon Kim, Suhyeon Jo, Suk Won Han

Brain Sciences August 26, 2023 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13091247 (opens in new tab)

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Neuroimaging study Peer reviewed
Sample size 40
Population Human participants across two independent neuroimaging datasets
Topics Default mode network
Keywords Mvpa FMRI Multiple demand network Task coding
Key points An attentional task produced positive MDN activity and DMN deactivation. Task features were decodable from fronto-parietal MDN regions, and also from DMN regions during rapid, trial-by-trial task-set reconfiguration. The authors suggest the two networks coordinate to support top-down cognitive control.

Abstract

Adaptive behavior in the environment requires a high level of cognitive control to bias limited processing resources to behaviorally significant stimuli. Such control has been associated with a set of brain regions located in the fronto-parietal cortex (multiple demand network), whose activity was found to increase as the control demand for a task increases. In contrast, another set of regions, default mode network regions, were found to be deactivated during top-down processing of task stimuli. Despite this dissociation in their activation amplitudes, it is possible that activation patterns of these regions commonly encode specific task features. In two independent neuroimaging datasets, involving a total of 40 human samples, we found that the performance of an attentional task evoked positive activity of the MDN and deactivation of the DMN. Consistent with previous studies, task features could be decoded from the fronto-parietal cognitive regions. Importantly, the regions of the DMN also encoded task features when the task set had to be rapidly reconfigured in a transient, trial-by-trial manner, along with the MDN regions. These results suggest that the two separate brain networks ultimately co-ordinate for the effective establishment of top-down cognitive control.

Comparable studies

Other experimental studies on default mode network, most cited first.

Study Year Design Participants
Functional connectivity of default mode network components: Correlation, anticorrelation, and causality Healthy subjects 2008 Observational study using resting-state fMRI and seed correlation analysis
Patterns of Brain Activity Supporting Autobiographical Memory, Prospection, and Theory of Mind, and Their Relationship to the Default Mode Network Healthy subjects 2009 Experimental study using fMRI
Dynamic reconfiguration of the default mode network during narrative comprehension Human subjects 2016 Experimental study
Broadband Cortical Desynchronization Underlies the Human Psychedelic State Healthy human participants 2013 Experimental study
The brain on art: intense aesthetic experience activates the default mode network Human observers 2012 Observational study with fMRI and behavioral analysis

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