RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Controlling Human Striatal Cognitive Function via the Frontal Cortex
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 5631
OP 5637
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.6428-11.2012
VO 32
IS 16
A1 Martine R. van Schouwenburg
A1 Jacinta O'Shea
A1 Rogier B. Mars
A1 Matthew F. S. Rushworth
A1 Roshan Cools
YR 2012
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/32/16/5631.abstract
AB Cognitive flexibility is known to depend on the striatum. However, the striatum does not act in isolation to bias cognitive flexibility. In particular, cognitive flexibility also implicates the frontal cortex. Here we tested the hypothesis that the human frontal cortex controls cognitive flexibility by regulating striatal function via topographically specific frontostriatal connections. To this end, we exploited a repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) protocol over frontal cortex that is known to increase dopamine release in the striatum. This intervention was combined with functional magnetic resonance imaging to determine the functional and topographic specificity of its consequences at the whole brain level. Participants were scanned both before and after off-line TMS while performing a cognitive switching task that is known to depend on a specific striatal substructure, the putamen. Frontal stimulation perturbed task-specific functional signals in the putamen, while reducing fronto-striatal functional connectivity. There were no such effects of TMS over the medial parietal cortex. These data strengthen the hypothesis that cognitive flexibility involves topographic frontal control of striatal function.