Abstract
Cognitive processes do not occur by pure insertion and instead depend on the full complement of co-occurring mental processes, including perceptual and motor functions. As such, there is limited ecological validity to human neuroimaging experiments that use highly controlled tasks to isolate mental processes of interest. However, a growing literature shows how dynamic, interactive tasks have allowed researchers to study cognition as it more naturally occurs. Collective analysis across such neuroimaging experiments may answer broader questions regarding how naturalistic cognition is biologically distributed throughout the brain. We applied an unbiased, data-driven, meta-analytic approach that uses k-means clustering to identify core brain networks engaged across the naturalistic functional neuroimaging literature. Functional decoding allowed us to, then, delineate how information is distributed between these networks throughout the execution of dynamical cognition in realistic settings. This analysis revealed six recurrent patterns of brain activation, representing sensory, domain-specific, and attentional neural networks that support the cognitive demands of naturalistic paradigms. Although gaps in the literature remain, these results suggest that naturalistic fMRI paradigms recruit a common set of networks that allow both separate processing of different streams of information and integration of relevant information to enable flexible cognition and complex behavior.
Highlights
Across the life sciences, researchers often seek a balance between ecological validity and careful laboratory control when making experimental design decisions
Naturalistic paradigms vary greatly and are designed to probe a wide range of psychological constructs and behaviors, we hypothesized that complex, multisensory processing are associated with a set of core neural networks engaged by similar content domains and task demands.The objectives of this study were to first elucidate core brain networks engaged by the myriad processes that underlie behavior during naturalistic fMRI paradigms and to characterize how information processing is potentially distributed between these networks to facilitate complex behaviors in realistic settings
This meta-analysis of naturalistic fMRI studies that apply dynamic, lifelike tasks to explore the neural correlates of behavior has shown that these paradigms engage a set of core neural networks, supporting both separate processing of different streams of information and the integration of related information to enable flexible cognition and complex behavior
Summary
Researchers often seek a balance between ecological validity and careful laboratory control when making experimental design decisions. This entails weighing the value of creating realistic stimuli representative of real-world, interactive experiences versus artificial, reductionist stimuli facilitating precise assessment of “isolated” mental process of interest via cognitive subtraction. Cognition does not occur by pure insertion; the functioning of any cognitive process is not wholly independent from other co-occurring processes (Friston et al, 1996). Cognition is highly interactive, encompassing measurable changes in neural activity that are dependent on the full amalgamation of relevant social, cognitive, perceptual, and motor processes. It is perhaps unreasonable to expect findings from a highly restricted assessment of a psychological construct in the scanner to fully generalize to real-world behaviors and settings
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