TY - JOUR
T1 - Mapping domain-selective and counterpointed domain-general higher cognitive functions in the lateral parietal cortex: Evidence from fMRI comparisons of difficulty-varying semantic vs. visuospatial tasks, and functional connectivity analyses.
AU - Humphreys, Gina
AU - Lambon Ralph, Matthew
PY - 2017/8
Y1 - 2017/8
N2 - Numerous cognitive domains have been associated with
the lateral parietal cortex, yet how these disparate functions are packed into this region
remains unclear. Whilst areas within the dorsal and ventral parietal cortex (DPC and VPC) show
differential function, there is considerable disagreement as to what these functions might be. Studies
focussed on individual domains have plotted out variations of function across the region. Direct
cross-domain comparisons are rare yet, when they have been undertaken, at least some regions
(particularly the intraparietal sulcus and core angular gyrus) appear to have contrastive domain-general
qualities. In order to pursue this parietal puzzle, this study utilised both functional and resting-state MRI
to investigate a potential unifying neurocomputational framework – in which both domain
general as well as domain-selective regions arise from differential patterns of connectivity
into subregions of the lateral parietal cortex. Specifically we found that, consistent with their
contrastive patterns of functional connectivity, subregions of DPC (anterior IPS) and VPC (AG)
exhibit counterpointed functions sensitive to task/item difficulty irrespective of cognitive
domain. We propose that these regions serve as top-down executively-penetrated and automatic bottom-up
domain-general buffers of active information, respectively.
In contrast, other parietal and non-parietal regions are tuned towards specific
domains.
AB - Numerous cognitive domains have been associated with
the lateral parietal cortex, yet how these disparate functions are packed into this region
remains unclear. Whilst areas within the dorsal and ventral parietal cortex (DPC and VPC) show
differential function, there is considerable disagreement as to what these functions might be. Studies
focussed on individual domains have plotted out variations of function across the region. Direct
cross-domain comparisons are rare yet, when they have been undertaken, at least some regions
(particularly the intraparietal sulcus and core angular gyrus) appear to have contrastive domain-general
qualities. In order to pursue this parietal puzzle, this study utilised both functional and resting-state MRI
to investigate a potential unifying neurocomputational framework – in which both domain
general as well as domain-selective regions arise from differential patterns of connectivity
into subregions of the lateral parietal cortex. Specifically we found that, consistent with their
contrastive patterns of functional connectivity, subregions of DPC (anterior IPS) and VPC (AG)
exhibit counterpointed functions sensitive to task/item difficulty irrespective of cognitive
domain. We propose that these regions serve as top-down executively-penetrated and automatic bottom-up
domain-general buffers of active information, respectively.
In contrast, other parietal and non-parietal regions are tuned towards specific
domains.
U2 - 10.1093/cercor/bhx107
DO - 10.1093/cercor/bhx107
M3 - Article
SN - 1047-3211
VL - 27
SP - 4199
EP - 4212
JO - Cerebral Cortex
JF - Cerebral Cortex
IS - 8
ER -