Intrinsic architecture underlying the relations among the default, dorsal attention, and frontoparietal control networks of the human brain

By R. Nathan Spreng, Jorge Sepulcre, G. R. Turner, W. D. Stevens, Daniel L. Schacter. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2012

665 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Human cognition is increasingly characterized as an emergent property of interactions among distributed, functionally specialized brain networks. We recently demonstrated that the antagonistic “default” and “dorsal attention” networks—subserving internally and externally directed cognition, respectively—are modulated by a third “frontoparietal control” network that flexibly couples with either network depending on task domain. However, little is known about the intrinsic functional architecture underlying this relationship. We used graph theory to analyze network properties of intrinsic functional connectivity within and between these three large-scale networks. Task-based activation from three independent studies were used to identify reliable brain regions (“nodes”) of each network. We then examined pairwise connections (“edges”) between nodes, as defined by resting-state functional connectivity MRI. Importantly, we used a novel bootstrap resampling procedure to determine the reliability of graph edges. Furthermore, we examined both full and partial correlations. As predicted, there was a higher degree of integration within each network than between networks. Critically, whereas the default and dorsal attention networks shared little positive connectivity with one another, the frontoparietal control network showed a high degree of between-network interconnectivity with each of these networks. Furthermore, we identified nodes within the frontoparietal control network of three different types—default-aligned, dorsal attention-aligned, and dual-aligned—that we propose play dissociable roles in mediating internetwork communication. The results provide evidence consistent with the idea that the frontoparietal control network plays a pivotal gate-keeping role in goal-directed cognition, mediating the dynamic balance between default and dorsal attention networks.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/20b9c31a396c660cde3d48e72b9ec87f4cf337fc

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Citations in the corpus

Communication dynamics in complex brain networks (2017, background): “…flow-based modules exhibited little correspondence with distributed systems that are generally associated with multiple cognitive states and that are characterized by containing a disproportionate number of connector hubs 117 that enable them to bridge different functional sub-subsystems 118–120 .”
Default and Executive Network Coupling Supports Creative Idea Production (2015, background): “Research in cognitive neuroscience has increasingly focused on examining large-scale functional networks (3, 4).”
The Bilingual Adaptation: How Minds Accommodate Experience (2017, background): “Notably, recent research in cognitive neuroscience takes place in the absence of behavioral data, investigating for example the relation between resting state connectivity and potential cognitive function (e.g., Spreng et al., 2013; Vincent et al., 2008).”
Network hubs in the human brain. (2013, neutral): “Other proposed approaches are based on an assessment of the placement of brain regions (i.e., nodes) into multiple functional modules or functional networks [45].”
The wandering brain: Meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging studies of mind-wandering and related spontaneous thought processes (2015, neutral): “…of the default mode and frontoparietal control networks Manymeta-analytic clusters fell within the borders of either the default mode (Buckner et al., 2008; Raichle et al., 2001; Shulman et al., 1997) or fronto-parietal control network (Spreng et al., 2013; Vincent et al., 2008; Yeo et al., 2011).”
Contributions and challenges for network models in cognitive neuroscience (2014, background): “First, network approaches have revealed not only the topography of RSN components but also their mutual network relations 33 —for example, demonstrating that the frontoparietal control network is pivotal in balancing activity between default and attention networks 34 .”
Towards a Universal Taxonomy of Macro-scale Functional Human Brain Networks (2019, neutral): “…cingulate, the precuneus and retrosplenial cortex, respectively; (2) hippocampus; (3) superior/middle frontal gyrus; (4) ventral frontal cortex and anterior temporal lobes; (5) temporoparietal junction (Buckner et al. 2008; Yeo et al. 2011; Spreng et al. 2013; Andrews-Hanna et al. 2014) (Fig.”