title: The engagement of mid-ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and posterior brain regions in intentional cognitive activity.
abstract: It is now widely recognized that cognitive processes are carried out by a distributed network of brain areas, some of which are involved in perceptual processing of a stimulus, whilst others are involved in cognitive control processes required to carry out certain tasks. In this study, differential contributions of higher visual areas and of an area involved in cognitive control processes were investigated in a task requiring participants to simply look at a stimulus or to look with the intention of remembering. Varying the extent to which intentional cognitive processes were required and the stimulus material in this task allowed the analysis of "top-down" and "bottom-up" influences on these areas, respectively. Significant increases in the mid-ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (mid-VLPFC) were only observed when the stimuli were viewed with an intention in mind, irrespective of the stimulus type. In contrast, activity in the parahippocampal place area and the fusiform face area, was only modulated in conditions requiring intentional control when stimuli were presented that also elicited activity in these regions during passive viewing. These findings help to clarify the complimentary role that the mid-VLPFC and posterior higher visual areas play in controlled and relatively automatic memory processing.
authors: Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, 15 Chaucer Road, Cambridge CB2 7EF, UK.
authors: Anja
authors: A
authors: Dove
authors: Tom
authors: T
authors: Manly
authors: Russell
authors: R
authors: Epstein
authors: Adrian M
authors: AM
authors: Owen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D020534:Parahippocampal Gyrus / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*