title: Brain regions associated with moment-to-moment adjustments in control and stable task-set maintenance.
abstract: While there is some consensus that cognitive control involves both a capacity to rapidly adjust to unexpected challenges and a capacity to prospectively maintain task-sets over longer timescales, there is disagreement concerning the neural implementation of these capacities. Some accounts, for example, associate rapid adjustments in control with a network of lateral prefrontal and parietal cortices and task-set maintenance with a network of anterior cingulate and insular cortices. Other accounts propose almost the opposite associations. The present study compared these accounts by means of a hybrid fMRI design. Twenty-three right-handed adults were administered a conflict-adaptation paradigm in which the frequency of compatible trials, and therefore, demands on rapid adjustments and stable task-set maintenance, varied parametrically across conditions. Increased demands on moment-to-moment adjustments were associated with a profile of phasic activity in anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula, and inferior parietal cortex. By contrast, increased demands on stable task-set maintenance were associated with increased sustained activity in medial superior frontal gyrus. Theoretical implications are discussed.
authors.affiliation: University of Western Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Heather A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Wilk
authors.forename: Frederick
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ezekiel
authors.forename: J Bruce
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Morton
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D000328:Adult; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis