Skip to content

A cross-modal investigation of the neural substrates for ongoing cognition.

Megan Wang, Biyu J. He

Frontiers in Psychology August 26, 2014 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00945 (opens in new tab)

Read Full Text
Relevant Not relevant

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Experimental fMRI study Peer reviewed
Population Human subjects undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging while following stories
Topics Default mode network
Keywords FMRI Cross-modal Semantic processing Conscious flow Linguistic processing Ongoing cognition
Key findings A set of brain regions, including the superior temporal sulcus/gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, posterior cingulate cortex, medial frontal cortex, temporal pole, and temporoparietal junction, was consistently modulated by a story's evolving content regardless of whether it was presented as visual text or auditory speech. Different stories elicited similar but subtly different patterns, which the authors suggest may relate to emotional valence and self-relevance.

Abstract

What neural mechanisms underlie the seamless flow of our waking consciousness? A necessary albeit insufficient condition for such neural mechanisms is that they should be consistently modulated across time were a segment of the conscious stream to be repeated twice. In this study, we experimentally manipulated the content of a story followed by subjects during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) independently from the modality of sensory input (as visual text or auditory speech) as well as attentional focus. We then extracted brain activity patterns consistently modulated across subjects by the evolving content of the story regardless of whether it was presented visually or auditorily. Specifically, in one experiment we presented the same story to different subjects via either auditory or visual modality. In a second experiment, we presented two different stories simultaneously, one auditorily, one visually, and manipulated the subjects' attentional focus. This experimental design allowed us to dissociate brain activities underlying modality-specific sensory processing from modality-independent story processing. We uncovered a network of brain regions consistently modulated by the evolving content of a story regardless of the sensory modality used for stimulus input, including the superior temporal sulcus/gyrus (STS/STG), the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), the medial frontal cortex (MFC), the temporal pole (TP), and the temporoparietal junction (TPJ). Many of these regions have previously been implicated in semantic processing. Interestingly, different stories elicited similar brain activity patterns, but with subtle differences potentially attributable to varying degrees of emotional valence and self-relevance.

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

Citations in the library

Cited by 1

Cites 5

Related reading

Explore topics

Default mode network Philosophy of mind