New functional dissociations between prefrontal and parietal cortex during task switching: A combined fMRI and TMS study

Abstract

Preparatory control in task-switching has been suggested to rely upon a set of distributed regions within a frontoparietal network, with frontal and parietal cortical areas cooperating to implement switch-specific preparation processes. Although recent causal evidence using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) have generally supported this model, alternative results from both functional neuroimaging and neurophysiological studies have questioned the switch-specific role of both frontal and parietal cortices. The aim of the present study was to clarify the involvement of prefrontal and parietal areas in preparatory cognitive control. With this purpose, an fMRI study was conducted to identify the brain areas activated during cue events in a task-switching paradigm, indicating whether to switch or to repeat among numerical tasks. Then, TMS was applied over the specific coordinates previously identified through fMRI, that is, the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and right intraparietal sulcus (IPS). Results revealed that TMS over the right IFG disrupted performance in both switch and repeat trails in terms of delayed responses as compared to Sham condition. In contrast, TMS over the right IPS selectively interfered performance in switch trials. These findings support a multi-component model of executive control with the IFG being involved in more general switch-unspecific process such as the episodic retrieval of goals, and the IPS being related to the implementation of switch-specific preparation mechanisms for activating stimulus-response mappings. The results are discussed within the framework of contemporary hierarchical models of prefrontal cortex organization, suggesting that distinct prefrontal areas may carry out coordinated functions in preparatory control.

Keywords: Executive functions; Task-switching; Transcranial magnetic stimulation; Ventrolateral prefrontal cortex; fMRI.