Default network activity, coupled with the frontoparietal control network, supports goal-directed cognition

By R. Nathan Spreng, W. D. Stevens, Jon Chamberlain, Adrian W. Gilmore, Daniel L. Schacter. NeuroImage, 2010

1,213 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Tasks that demand externalized attention reliably suppress default network activity while activating the dorsal attention network. These networks have an intrinsic competitive relationship; activation of one suppresses activity of the other. Consequently, many assume that default network activity is suppressed during goal-directed cognition. We challenge this assumption in an fMRI study of planning. Recent studies link default network activity with internally focused cognition, such as imagining personal future events, suggesting a role in autobiographical planning. However, it is unclear how goal-directed cognition with an internal focus is mediated by these opposing networks. A third anatomically interposed ‘frontoparietal control network’ might mediate planning across domains, flexibly coupling with either the default or dorsal attention network in support of internally versus externally focused goal-directed cognition, respectively. We tested this hypothesis by comparing brain activity during autobiographical versus visuospatial planning. Autobiographical planning engaged the default network, whereas visuospatial planning engaged the dorsal attention network, consistent with the anti-correlated domains of internalized and externalized cognition. Critically, both planning tasks engaged the frontoparietal control network. Task-related activation of these three networks was anatomically consistent with independently defined resting-state functional connectivity MRI maps. Together, our findings suggest that the default network can be involved in goal-directed cognition when its activity is coupled with the frontoparietal control network. Additionally, the frontoparietal control network may flexibly couple with the default and dorsal attention networks according to task domain, serving as a cortical mediator linking the two networks in support of goal-directed cognitive processes.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1513fa7fff54cc2660e1df45429a09f49e5162eb

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In Cognitive Neuroscience

Citations in the corpus

Towards a Universal Taxonomy of Macro-scale Functional Human Brain Networks (2019, neutral): “…information will engage both the lateral frontoparietal control and dorsal frontoparietal attention networks, whereas working memory for mnemonic information will evoke activity in both the lateral frontoparietal control network and medial frontoparietal default networks (Spreng et al. 2010, 2012).”
Are episodic memories special? On the sameness of remembered and imagined event simulation (2018, methodology): “Simulation in service of autobiographical planning (Spreng et al. 2010), problem solving (Gerlach et al. 2011) and creativity (Ellamil et al. 2012; Madore et al. 2017) also engages the DMN, in conjunction with other networks (e.g. dorsal attention network, frontoparietal control network), depending…”
Default and Executive Network Coupling Supports Creative Idea Production (2015, background): “Under these contexts—including autobiographical future planning, positive constructive daydreaming, keeping track of social information, and evaluating creative ideas—the dorsal attention network and executive networks become decoupled and the executive network couples with the default mode network ”
Situating the default-mode network along a principal gradient of macroscale cortical organization (2016, background): “Beyond supporting states of creativity and planning [64, 65], the DMN has also been implicated in almost all psychiatric conditions [66], indicating that there are costs, as well as benefits that accrue from the capacity to apprehend the world as it might be rather than seeing it as it is right now.”
New perspectives on the role of melatonin in human sleep, circadian rhythms and their regulation (2018, background): “It consists of the medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus, inferior parietal lobe, lateral temporal cortex and hippocampal formation and is involved with interoceptive awareness and mind wandering (Spreng et al., 2010).”
Creative Cognition and Brain Network Dynamics (2015, background): “, autobiographical future planning [10,19,24]).”
Emotion and the Prefrontal Cortex: An Integrative Review (2017, background): “Furthermore, the RMPFC is activated when participants recall episodic memories and imagine future events— particularly future goals that are closely tied to personal values (e.g., becoming a doctor; Addis, Wong, & Schacter, 2007; D’Argembeau et al., 2005; D’Argembeau et al., 2010; D’Argembeau et al.”
Depressive Rumination, the Default-Mode Network, and the Dark Matter of Clinical Neuroscience (2015, background): “…perceptual domains requiring distinct contributions of functionally specialized regions—from autobiographical planning tasks in normal participants (65) to cross-modal perceptual integration in grapheme-color synesthesia (66)—investigators have remained non-committal about the computational…”