title: Neural correlates of stimulus response and stimulus outcome shifting in healthy participants and MS patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Adaptation to changing situations can be mediated by two strategies: (1) Evaluation of a response and (2) Evaluation of outcome values in relation to objects. Previous studies indicate that response shifting is associated with a network comprising the left frontal cortex and parietal cortex connected by the superior longitudinal fascicle, whereas outcome evaluation is associated with a network consisting of the orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala and uncinate fascicle. However, these studies rarely compared both kinds of adaptation directly and existing fMRI studies with healthy subjects are not informative about the role of the two fiber systems.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analyzed stimulus response shifting and stimulus outcome shifting in two studies, one fMRI-study on healthy participants and one study on patients with MS involving structural MRI (Diffusion Tensor Imaging, Voxel Based Morphometry, Ventricular volumetry). Two tasks were used, identical in presentation but different in instruction, controlling for effects of lower level processing. In the SRS task, participants had to perform a "Go" or "NoGo" response depending on a stimulus change: if the stimulus remained the same, they had to continue with the former type of response, if it changed they had to adapt their response pattern. In the SOS task they had to perform a "Go" response only if the presented stimulus corresponded to that of an internal alternating series.
  
  
  RESULTS
  fMRI findings showed that SRS is related to a bilateral parietal-premotor network. In the left hemisphere the prefrontal cortex was also involved. SOS was lateralized to the right hemisphere, particularly to the anterior temporal pole and amygdala, and the inferior parietal cortex. MS patients impaired on this task suffered from lesions in the right uncinate fascicle and showed an enlarged right frontal lateral ventricle.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  With physically identical tasks, a functional neuronal segregation can be demonstrated for stimulus response shifting (bilateral activations with a focus in the left prefrontal cortex) and stimulus outcome shifting (right anterior temporal lobe and right supramarginal gyrus).
authors.affiliation: Klinikum Bremen-Ost, Department of Neurology, Züricher Str. 40, 28325 Bremen, Germany. Helmut.Hildebrandt@uni-oldenburg.de
authors.forename: Helmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hildebrandt
authors.forename: Frauke
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fink
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Eling
authors.forename: Heiner
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Stuke
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lentschig
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kastrup
authors.forename: Christiane
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Thiel
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Breckel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology