title: Brain regions activated by endogenous preparatory set shifting as revealed by fMRI.
abstract: An ongoing controversy concerns whether executive control mechanisms can actively reconfigure the cognitive system in preparation for switching to a new task set. To address this question, we recorded brain activity from 14 healthy participants, using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging, while they performed a cued attention task. Critically, in any particular trial, the cued task set was either the same as that in the previous trial or switched. As was hypothesized, cue-related, switch-specific preparatory activity was observed in a network of dorsal frontal and parietal brain areas that are typically associated with cognitive control processes. Moreover, the magnitude of switch-specific preparatory activity varied with the number of possible task sets that could be presented in a given trial block. These findings provide compelling support for the existence of top-down, preparatory control processes that enable set switching. Furthermore, they demonstrate that global task structure is a critical determinant of whether switch-specific preparatory activity is observed.
authors.affiliation: Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: H A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Slagter
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Weissman
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Giesbrecht
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Kenemans
authors.forename: G R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Mangun
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kok
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Woldorff
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012718:Set, Psychology
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen