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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 8, 2026

New Variations for Strategy Set-shifting in the Rat

New Variations for Strategy Set-shifting in the Rat

Published on: January 23, 2017

Fronto-striatal contribution to lexical set-shifting.

France Simard¹, Yves Joanette, Michael Petrides

¹Functional Neuroimaging Unit, Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, Quebec, Canada.

Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)

|September 25, 2010

Summary

This study explored brain activity during a word-based sorting task, finding that fronto-striatal circuits are involved in planning and executing cognitive shifts. The brain regions activated suggest modality-independent executive functions in set-shifting.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Psychology
Neuroimaging

Background:

Set-shifting, the ability to change cognitive strategies, is crucial for executive functions.
Previous neuroimaging studies, often using the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST) with visual stimuli, have implicated fronto-striatal circuits in set-shifting.
The role of these circuits in tasks involving non-visual, specifically lexical, information remains less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether fronto-striatal contributions to planning and executing set-shifts are consistent across different sensory modalities.
To examine brain activation patterns during a novel lexical version of the WCST, termed the Wisconsin Word Sorting Task (WWST).

Main Methods:

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed to scan young healthy adults.
Participants performed the newly developed Wisconsin Word Sorting Task, which uses lexical rules applied to word stimuli.
Analysis focused on identifying brain regions activated during the planning and execution phases of set-shifts.

Main Results:

Significant activation was observed in a cortico-striatal loop (ventrolateral prefrontal cortex area 47/12 and caudate nucleus) during the planning of set-shifts.
Activation in a separate loop (posterior PFC and putamen) occurred during the execution of set-shifts.
Additional activation peaks in ventrolateral PFC area 45 were noted during matching periods in the lexical task.

Conclusions:

The findings suggest that fronto-striatal circuits play a key role in both planning and executing cognitive set-shifts, irrespective of the information's modality.
The results indicate that specific executive processes, rather than the sensory modality of the stimuli, determine the engagement of particular fronto-striatal loops.
This provides evidence for modality-independent executive functions within fronto-striatal networks.