The neural implementation of task rule activation in the task-cuing paradigm: an event-related fMRI study.
To isolate the neural correlates for task rule activation from those related to general task preparation, the effect of a cue explicitly specifying the S-R correspondences (rule-cue) was contrasted with the effects of a cue specifying only the task to performed (task-cue). While the task-cue provides merely information about the type of task, the rule-cue is explicit about both the task type and the task rule (i.e., the set of S-R correspondences). The rule-cue was expected to activate the task rule more efficiently in the preparation period (prior to target presentation); by contrast, in the task-cue condition, part of the task rule activation was expected to be postponed into the task execution period (following the presentation of the target). In an event-related fMRI experiment, we found the right anterior and middle parts of the middle frontal and superior frontal gyri, the right inferior frontal junction, the pre-SMA, as well as the right superior and inferior parietal lobes to show larger activation elicited by the rule-cue than by the task-cue prior to target presentation. Conversely, the results revealed larger activations in these regions in the task-cue than in the rule-cue condition during the task execution period. In summary, this study identified some of the neural correlates of task rule activation and showed that these are a subset of the general task preparation network.
Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing, China. Yiquan.shi@campus.lmu.de
Yiquan
Y
Shi
Xiaolin
X
Zhou
Hermann J
HJ
Müller
Torsten
T
Schubert
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult