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Does "task difficulty" explain "task-induced deactivation?".

Sam J Gilbert1, Geoffrey Bird, Chris D Frith

  • 1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London London, UK.

Frontiers in Psychology
|April 28, 2012
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

The default mode network

Keywords:
default modefMRImedial prefrontal cortexstimulus-independent thoughttask difficulty

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Brain Imaging

Background:

  • The default mode network (DMN) is typically deactivated during demanding tasks.
  • Task difficulty is often used to explain DMN deactivation.
  • The precise nature of tasks that elicit DMN suppression is debated.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how different types of task difficulty influence DMN activity.
  • To determine if task difficulty, or cognitive demands, better predict DMN deactivation.
  • To explore functional heterogeneity within the DMN.

Main Methods:

  • Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure brain activity.
  • Participants performed stimulus-oriented and stimulus-independent tasks.
  • Task difficulty was assessed using response time and error rates.

Main Results:

  • A stimulus-independent task showed intermediate difficulty based on response time and errors.
  • Medial rostral prefrontal cortex (MPFC) showed reduced activity during the stimulus-independent task.
  • Other DMN regions exhibited greatest deactivation during a difficult stimulus-oriented task.

Conclusions:

  • Task difficulty alone does not fully explain MPFC signal changes.
  • MPFC activity is better predicted by the need for internal information manipulation.
  • DMN regions display functional heterogeneity in response to cognitive demands.