Meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies of the Wisconsin card-sorting task and component processes.
A quantitative meta-analysis using the activation likelihood estimation (ALE) method was used to investigate the brain basis of the Wisconsin Card-Sorting Task (WCST) and two hypothesized component processes, task switching and response suppression. All three meta-analyses revealed distributed frontoparietal activation patterns consistent with the status of the WCST as an attention-demanding executive task. The WCST was associated with extensive bilateral clusters of reliable cross-study activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and inferior parietal lobule. Task switching revealed a similar, although less robust, frontoparietal pattern with additional clusters of activity in the opercular region of the ventral prefrontal cortex, bilaterally. Response-suppression tasks, represented by studies of the go/no-go paradigm, showed a large and highly right-lateralized region of activity in the right prefrontal cortex. The activation patterns are interpreted as reflecting a neural fractionation of the cognitive components that must be integrated during the performance of the WCST.
Buchsbaum
Bradley R
BR
Unit on Integrative Neuroimaging, Clinical Brain Disorders Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-1365, USA. buchsbab@intra.nimh.nih.gov
Greer
Stephanie
S
Chang
Wei-Li
WL
Berman
Karen Faith
KF
D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D015201:Meta-Analysis as Topic; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*