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Imaging the mental components of a planning task.

J B Rowe¹, A M Owen, I S Johnsrude

¹Wellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology, University College London, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK. j.rowe@fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk

Neuropsychologia

|February 13, 2001

Summary

The Tower of London task

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Psychology

Background:

The Tower of London task is a standard method for assessing planning abilities.
Understanding the neural basis of planning is crucial for cognitive neuroscience.
Previous research has implicated prefrontal cortex in planning, but specific components remain unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

To isolate cognitive components of the Tower of London task using neuroimaging.
To investigate the neural correlates of planning versus move generation.
To differentiate the brain activity associated with goal-directed planning from other cognitive processes.

Main Methods:

Used H(2)O(15)-positron emission tomography (PET) to measure brain activity.
Employed six conditions: planning, planning-control (generating moves without a goal), move execution, imagination, visuomotor control, and rest.
Matched planning and planning-control tasks for working memory load and initial thinking time.

Main Results:

Both planning and planning-control tasks showed activation in dorsal prefrontal cortex, premotor, parietal cortex, and cerebellum compared to baseline.
Directly contrasting planning with planning-control revealed no significant residual prefrontal cortex activation.
Goal-directed planning involves posterior association areas for goal representation comparison.

Conclusions:

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity in the Tower of London task is linked to generating, selecting, and remembering mental moves.
The specific evaluation of a path towards a goal does not uniquely activate the dorsal prefrontal cortex.
Planning involves a network including dorsal prefrontal, premotor, parietal, and cerebellar regions, with posterior areas crucial for goal comparison.

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