Journal
HUMAN BRAIN MAPPING
Volume 36, Issue 7, Pages 2719-2731Publisher
WILEY-BLACKWELL
DOI: 10.1002/hbm.22802
Keywords
relational complexity; reasoning; connectivity; networks; default-mode; cognitive control
Funding
- Australian Research Council (ARC) Science of Learning Research Centre [SR120300015]
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function [CE140100007]
- ARC Australian Laureate Fellowship [FL110100103]
- Australian National Health Medical Research Council [APP1047648]
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Successful performance of challenging cognitive tasks depends on a consistent functional segregation of activity within the default-mode network, on the one hand, and control networks encompassing frontoparietal and cingulo-opercular areas on the other. Recent work, however, has suggested that in some cognitive control contexts nodes within the default-mode and control networks may actually cooperate to achieve optimal task performance. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine whether the ability to relate variables while solving a cognitive reasoning problem involves transient increases in connectivity between default-mode and control regions. Participants performed a modified version of the classic Wason selection task, in which the number of variables to be related is systematically varied across trials. As expected, areas within the default-mode network showed a parametric deactivation with increases in relational complexity, compared with neural activity in null trials. Critically, some of these areas also showed enhanced connectivity with task-positive control regions. Specifically, task-based connectivity between the striatum and the angular gyri, and between the thalamus and right temporal pole, increased as a function of relational complexity. These findings challenge the notion that functional segregation between regions within default-mode and control networks invariably support cognitive task performance, and reveal previously unknown roles for the striatum and thalamus in managing network dynamics during cognitive reasoning. Hum Brain Mapp 36:2719-2731, 2015. (c) 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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