Abstract
Cognitive control proactively configures information processing to suit expected task demands. Predictions of forthcoming demand can be driven by explicit external cues or be generated internally, based on past experience (cognitive history). However, it is not known whether and how the brain reconciles these two sources of information to guide control. Pairing a probabilistic task-switching paradigm with computational modeling, we found that external and internally generated predictions jointly guide task preparation, with a bias for internal predictions. Using model-based neuroimaging, we then show that the two sources of task prediction are integrated in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and jointly inform a representation of the likelihood of a change in task demand, encoded in frontoparietal cortex. Upon task-stimulus onset, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex encoded the need for reactive task-set adjustment. These data reveal how the human brain integrates external cues and cognitive history to prepare for an upcoming task.
Highlights
At the time of pre-cue onset, the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data revealed an integrated representation of the joint external and internal predictions in left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. This prediction informed a representation of proactive switch demand in the frontoparietal control network, and, at the time of task stimulus presentation, the prediction error associated with these joint predictions (i. e., reactive switch demand) was encoded in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)
The human brain is capable of anticipating forthcoming task demand and exerting proactive control to reconfigure information processing in line with those predictions (Shenhav et al, 2013; Egner, 2014; Jiang et al, 2014; Abrahamse et al, 2016; Waskom et al, 2017)
We sought to characterize how this regulation of anticipatory control is implemented in the context of concurrent external, cue-based, and internally generated, cognitive history-based predictions of forthcoming control demand in the form of task-set updating
Summary
‘Cognitive control’ describes a collection of neurocognitive mechanisms that allow us to use internal goals and ongoing context to strategically bias the manner in which we process information (Miller and Cohen, 2001; Egner, 2017). The broad suggestion is that people predict forthcoming task demands and adjust processing (e.g., Shenhav et al, 2013; Egner, 2014; Jiang et al, 2014; Abrahamse et al, 2016; Waskom et al, 2017) Such expectations about task demands can be driven by two sources: explicit predictions provided by external cues At the time of pre-cue onset, the fMRI data revealed an integrated representation of the joint external and internal predictions in left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) This prediction informed a representation of proactive switch demand in the frontoparietal control network, and, at the time of task stimulus presentation, the prediction error associated with these joint predictions These data suggest that experientially acquired and explicitly cued expectations of control demand are reconciled in dlPFC and dmPFC to jointly guide the implementation of cognitive control
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