RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Adaptive Coding of Task-Relevant Information in Human Frontoparietal Cortex
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 14592
OP 14599
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2616-11.2011
VO 31
IS 41
A1 Woolgar, Alexandra
A1 Hampshire, Adam
A1 Thompson, Russell
A1 Duncan, John
YR 2011
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/31/41/14592.abstract
AB Frontoparietal cortex is thought to be essential for flexible behavior, but the mechanism for control remains elusive. Here, we demonstrate a potentially critical property of this cortex: its dynamic configuration for coding of task-critical information. Using multivoxel pattern analysis of human functional imaging data, we demonstrate an adaptive change in the patterns of activation coding task-relevant stimulus distinctions. When task demands made perceptual information more difficult to discriminate, frontoparietal regions showed increased coding of this information. Visual cortices showed the opposite result: a weaker representation of perceptual information in line with the physical change in the stimulus. On a longer timescale, a rebalancing of coding was also seen after practice, with a diminished representation of task rules as they became familiar. The results suggest a flexible neural system, exerting cognitive control in a wide range of tasks by adaptively representing the task features most challenging for successful goal-directed behavior.