title: Co-Activation-Based Parcellation of the Lateral Prefrontal Cortex Delineates the Inferior Frontal Junction Area.
abstract: The inferior frontal junction (IFJ) area, a small region in the posterior lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC), has received increasing interest in recent years due to its central involvement in the control of action, attention, and memory. Yet, both its function and anatomy remain controversial. Here, we employed a meta-analytic parcellation of the left LPFC to show that the IFJ can be isolated based on its specific functional connections. A seed region, oriented along the left inferior frontal sulcus (IFS), was subdivided via cluster analyses of voxel-wise whole-brain co-activation patterns. The ensuing clusters were characterized by their unique connections, the functional profiles of associated experiments, and an independent topic mapping approach. A cluster at the posterior end of the IFS matched previous descriptions of the IFJ in location and extent and could be distinguished from a more caudal cluster involved in motor control, a more ventral cluster involved in linguistic processing, and 3 more rostral clusters involved in other aspects of cognitive control. Overall, our findings highlight that the IFJ constitutes a core functional unit within the frontal lobe and delineate its borders. Implications for the IFJ's role in human cognition and the organizational principles of the frontal lobe are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Paul S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Muhle-Karbe
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Derrfuss
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Margaret T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Lynn
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Franz X
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: Neubert
authors.affiliation: Research Imaging Institute, University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Peter T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Fox
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brass
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Psychology, Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.|Brain Network Modeling Group, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1) Research Center Jülich, Jülich, Germany.
authors.forename: Simon B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Eickhoff
mesh_terms: D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D016208:Databases, Factual; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D008959:Models, Neurological; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance
keywords: cognitive control; inferior frontal junction; meta-analysis; prefrontal cortex