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Fast Neural Dynamics of Proactive Cognitive Control in a Task-Switching Analogue of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test

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Abstract

One common assumption has been that prefrontal executive control is mostly required for target detection (Posner and Petersen in Ann Rev Neurosci 13:25–42, 1990). Alternatively, cognitive control has also been related to anticipatory updating of task-set (contextual) information, a view that highlights proactive control processes. Frontoparietal cortical networks contribute to both proactive control and reactive target detection, although their fast dynamics are still largely unexplored. To examine this, we analyzed rapid magnetoencephalographic (MEG) source activations elicited by task cues and target cards in a task-cueing analogue of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. A single-task (color sorting) condition with equivalent perceptual and motor demands was used as a control. Our results revealed fast, transient and largely switch-specific MEG activations across frontoparietal and cingulo-opercular regions in anticipation of target cards, including (1) early (100–200 ms) cue-locked MEG signals at visual, temporo-parietal and prefrontal cortices of the right hemisphere (i.e., calcarine sulcus, precuneus, inferior frontal gyrus, anterior insula and supramarginal gyrus); and (2) later cue-locked MEG signals at the right anterior and posterior insula (200–300 ms) and the left temporo-parietal junction (300–500 ms). In all cases larger MEG signal intensity was observed in switch relative to repeat cueing conditions. Finally, behavioral restart costs and test scores of working memory capacity (forward digit span) correlated with cue-locked MEG activations at key nodes of the frontoparietal network. Together, our findings suggest that proactive cognitive control of task rule updating can be fast and transiently implemented within less than a second and in anticipation of target detection.

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Notes

  1. Switch-specific and transient (200–300 ms post-cue) MEG activations did reach significance in the ACC bilaterally when using a less strict double-threshold approach combining voxel-based with minimum cluster size (cf., Stelzel et al. 2011).

  2. Even using a less strict double-threshold approach (Stelzel et al. 2011), only one task-level contrast (repeat > standard) reached significance for MEG activations at the middle frontal gyrus 300–400 post-target onset.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by Grants from the Fundació La Marató de TV3 (112710), and Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO PSI2013-44760-R) to FB. We thank the insightful criticisms and helpful commentaries from two anonymous reviewers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience (UCM-UPM), Centre for Biomedical Technology, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Gema Díaz-Blancat,  Juan García-Prieto &  Fernando Maestú

  2. Laboratory of Electrical Engineering and Bioengineering, Department of Industrial Engineering, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain

    Juan García-Prieto

  3. Department of Basic Psychology II, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Fernando Maestú

  4. Laboratory of Neuropsychology, University of the Balearic Islands, 07122, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

    Francisco Barceló

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  1. Gema Díaz-Blancat
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  4. Francisco Barceló
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Correspondence to Francisco Barceló.

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10548_2017_607_MOESM1_ESM.tiff

Supplementary Fig. 1. Group-averaged (N = 15) MEG signal waveforms recorded from 306 sensors for switch cues (upper panel), repeat cues (middle panel), and switch–repeat differences (lower panel). Trials were averaged around cue onset with a 300 mseg baseline. On the right are the respective topographies of dipolar activity at the sensor space for each group-averaged condition 100–200 mseg post-cue onset (shaded area), a latency window when significant switch-specific differences in MEG signal intensity were observed at the largest number of frontal and posterior regions. The color scale of the topo plots depends on the orientation of the dipoles on the cortex (TIFF 4007 KB)

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Gema Díaz-Blancat, Juan García-Prieto, Fernando Maestú et al. Fast Neural Dynamics of Proactive Cognitive Control in a Task-Switching Analogue of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. Brain Topogr 31, 407–418 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-017-0607-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-017-0607-6

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