Abstract
Extensive evidence suggests that the human ability to adaptively implement a wide variety of tasks is preferentially a result of the operation of a fronto-parietal brain network (FPN). We hypothesized that this network's adaptability is made possible by flexible hubs: brain regions that rapidly update their pattern of global functional connectivity according to task demands. Using recent advances in characterizing brain network organization and dynamics, we identified mechanisms consistent with the flexible hub theory. We found that the FPN's brain-wide functional connectivity pattern shifted more than those of other networks across a variety of task states and that these connectivity patterns could be used to identify the current task. Furthermore, these patterns were consistent across practiced and novel tasks, suggesting that reuse of flexible hub connectivity patterns facilitates adaptive (novel) task performance. Together, these findings support a central role for fronto-parietal flexible hubs in cognitive control and adaptive implementation of task demands.
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Change history
05 August 2013
In the version of this article initially published, in the sentence following the equation in Online Methods, an â character was substituted for the β. The error has been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.
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Acknowledgements
We thank S. Petersen, D. Bassett and J. Etzel for helpful feedback and suggestions during preparation of this manuscript. We also thank W. Schneider for access to data from his laboratory. Our work was supported by the US National Institutes of Health under awards K99MH096801 (M.W.C.), DP5OD012109-01 (A.A.) and a Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (NARSAD) Young Investigator Award (A.A.).
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M.W.C., T.S.B., J.R.R. and J.D.P. planned and conducted data analyses. M.W.C., T.S.B., J.D.P., J.R.R., G.R. and A.A. wrote the manuscript. All of the authors discussed data analysis choices, the results and the manuscript.
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Cole, M., Reynolds, J., Power, J. et al. Multi-task connectivity reveals flexible hubs for adaptive task control. Nat Neurosci 16, 1348–1355 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3470
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3470
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