Dynamic reconfiguration of frontal brain networks during executive cognition in humans

• Verfasst von: Braun, Urs [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Meyer-Lindenberg, Andreas [VerfasserIn]
• Titel: Dynamic reconfiguration of frontal brain networks during executive cognition in humans
• Verf.angabe: Urs Braun, Axel Schäfer, Henrik Walter, Susanne Erk, Nina Romanczuk-Seiferth, Leila Haddad, Janina I. Schweiger, Oliver Grimm, Andreas Heinz, Heike Tost, Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, and Danielle S. Bassett
• E-Jahr: 2015
• Jahr: September 15, 2015
• Umfang: 6 S.
• Fussnoten: Gesehen am 26.02.2018
• Titel Quelle: Enthalten in: National Academy of Sciences (Washington, DC)Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
• Ort Quelle: Washington, DC : National Acad. of Sciences, 1915
• Jahr Quelle: 2015
• Band/Heft Quelle: 112(2015), 37, Seite 11678-11683
• ISSN Quelle: 1091-6490
• DOI: doi:10.1073/pnas.1422487112
• Datenträger: Online-Ressource
• Sprache: eng
• Sach-SW: dynamic network
• Sach-SW: flexibility
• Sach-SW: frontal cortex
• Sach-SW: graph theory
• Sach-SW: working memory
• K10plus-PPN: 1570197571

Abstract

The brain is an inherently dynamic system, and executive cognition requires dynamically reconfiguring, highly evolving networks of brain regions that interact in complex and transient communication patterns. However, a precise characterization of these reconfiguration processes during cognitive function in humans remains elusive. Here, we use a series of techniques developed in the field of “dynamic network neuroscience” to investigate the dynamics of functional brain networks in 344 healthy subjects during a working-memory challenge (the “n-back” task). In contrast to a control condition, in which dynamic changes in cortical networks were spread evenly across systems, the effortful working-memory condition was characterized by a reconfiguration of frontoparietal and frontotemporal networks. This reconfiguration, which characterizes “network flexibility,” employs transient and heterogeneous connectivity between frontal systems, which we refer to as “integration.” Frontal integration predicted neuropsychological measures requiring working memory and executive cognition, suggesting that dynamic network reconfiguration between frontal systems supports those functions. Our results characterize dynamic reconfiguration of large-scale distributed neural circuits during executive cognition in humans and have implications for understanding impaired cognitive function in disorders affecting connectivity, such as schizophrenia or dementia.