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Right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex mediates individual differences in conflict-driven cognitive control.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Egner, T
Published in: Journal of cognitive neuroscience
December 2011

Conflict adaptation--a conflict-triggered improvement in the resolution of conflicting stimulus or response representations--has become a widely used probe of cognitive control processes in both healthy and clinical populations. Previous fMRI studies have localized activation foci associated with conflict resolution to dorsolateral PFC (dlPFC). The traditional group analysis approach employed in these studies highlights regions that are, on average, activated during conflict resolution, but does not necessarily reveal areas mediating individual differences in conflict resolution, because between-subject variance is treated as noise. Here, we employed a complementary approach to elucidate the neural bases of variability in the proficiency of conflict-driven cognitive control. We analyzed two independent fMRI data sets of face-word Stroop tasks by using individual variability in the behavioral expression of conflict adaptation as the metric against which brain activation was regressed while controlling for individual differences in mean RT and Stroop interference. Across the two experiments, a replicable neural substrate of individual variation in conflict adaptation was found in ventrolateral PFC (vlPFC), specifically, in the right inferior frontal gyrus, pars orbitalis (BA 47). Unbiased regression estimates showed that variability in activity in this region accounted for ∼ 40% of the variance in behavioral expression of conflict adaptation across subjects, thus documenting a heretofore unsuspected key role for vlPFC in mediating conflict-driven adjustments in cognitive control. We speculate that vlPFC plays a primary role in conflict control that is supplemented by dlPFC recruitment under conditions of suboptimal performance.

Duke Scholars

Published In

Journal of cognitive neuroscience

DOI

EISSN

1530-8898

ISSN

0898-929X

Publication Date

December 2011

Volume

23

Issue

12

Start / End Page

3903 / 3913

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Prefrontal Cortex
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Male
  • Individuality
  • Humans
  • Functional Laterality
  • Female
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Conflict, Psychological
 

Citation

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Egner, T. (2011). Right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex mediates individual differences in conflict-driven cognitive control. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23(12), 3903–3913. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_00064
Egner, Tobias. “Right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex mediates individual differences in conflict-driven cognitive control.Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 23, no. 12 (December 2011): 3903–13. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_00064.
Egner, Tobias. “Right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex mediates individual differences in conflict-driven cognitive control.Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, vol. 23, no. 12, Dec. 2011, pp. 3903–13. Epmc, doi:10.1162/jocn_a_00064.
Egner T. Right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex mediates individual differences in conflict-driven cognitive control. Journal of cognitive neuroscience. 2011 Dec;23(12):3903–3913.
Journal cover image

Published In

Journal of cognitive neuroscience

DOI

EISSN

1530-8898

ISSN

0898-929X

Publication Date

December 2011

Volume

23

Issue

12

Start / End Page

3903 / 3913

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Prefrontal Cortex
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Male
  • Individuality
  • Humans
  • Functional Laterality
  • Female
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Conflict, Psychological