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Striatal activation as a neural link between cognitive and perceptual flexibility
Maria Sekutowicz1, Katharina Schmack1, Rosa Steimke2
1Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, D-10117 Berlin, Germany.
Neuroimage
|July 31, 2016
Summary
Brain flexibility in perception and cognition is linked. Individual differences in cognitive flexibility, particularly fronto-striatal activity, correlate with perceptual flexibility during bistable vision tasks.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
Background:
- Perceptual flexibility allows updating conscious experience based on sensory data.
- Individual differences in perceptual flexibility are linked to dopaminergic neurotransmission.
- Cognitive flexibility also shows individual variability, associated with striato-frontal circuits.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between individual differences in perceptual flexibility and neural correlates of cognitive flexibility.
- To explore shared mechanisms underlying both perceptual and cognitive flexibility.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to study 126 healthy individuals.
- Participants performed a rule-based task switching task and viewed a modified Necker cube for bistable perception.
- Mean phase duration of perceptual switching was measured as an index of perceptual flexibility.
Main Results:
- A correlation was found between perceptual flexibility (mean phase duration) and task-switching related activity in the right putamen (basal ganglia).
- A tentative correlation was observed between measures of perceptual and cognitive flexibility.
- Fronto-striatal processing associated with cognitive flexibility appears to contribute to perceptual flexibility.
Conclusions:
- Individual differences in cognitive flexibility and associated fronto-striatal mechanisms influence perceptual flexibility.
- Findings support the hypothesis of shared neural mechanisms underlying both perception and cognition.
- This research highlights the interconnectedness of perceptual and cognitive processing in the brain.
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