title: Global increase in task-related fronto-parietal activity after focal frontal lobe lesion.
abstract: A critical question for neuropsychology is how complex brain networks react to damage. Here, we address this question for the well-known executive control or multiple-demand (MD) system, a fronto-parietal network showing increased activity with many different kinds of cognitive demand, including standard tests of fluid intelligence. Using fMRI, we ask how focal frontal lobe damage affects MD activity during a standard fluid intelligence task. Despite poor behavioral performance, frontal patients showed increased fronto-parietal activity relative to controls. The activation difference was not accounted for by difference in IQ. Moreover, rather than specific focus on perilesional or contralesional cortex, additional recruitment was distributed throughout the MD regions and surrounding cortex and included parietal MD regions distant from the injury. The data suggest that, following local frontal lobe damage, there is a global compensatory recruitment of an adaptive and integrated fronto-parietal network.
authors.affiliation: ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 2109. alexandra.woolgar@mq.edu.au
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Woolgar
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bor
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Duncan
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000098:blood supply / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007360:Intelligence; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009460:Neurologic Examination; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000098:blood supply / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen