Neural correlates of cognitive efficiency
Section snippets
Subjects
Twelve participants (ages 18–27, 7 M, 5 F) were recruited from the Rutgers University—Newark and University of Pennsylvania campuses. Subjects were excluded if they had any medical, neurological, or psychiatric illness, or if they were taking any type of prescription medication.
Behavioral task
Subjects were brought into the laboratory, signed consent, and given a standard battery of questionnaires (to determine their MRI compatibility), a paper and pencil version of the DSST task, from the Wechsler Adult
Behavioral performance
Behavioral analyses indicated uniformly high accuracy with minimal interindividual variability (M = 97.0%, SD = 0.01). RTs were fast with more interindividual variability (1331.5 ms, SD = 177.4) than was observed in accuracy. Slower and less accurate performers had lower DSST scores than faster and more accurate performers (p = 0.02).
Imaging data
fMRI analyses indicated activation in a network of PFC and parietal regions across subjects. There was considerable interindividual variation in the location and spatial
Discussion
In this study, we tested the hypothesis that individual differences in cortical function (as measured by fMRI signal changes) are associated with individual variability in processing speed (as measured by differences in individuals’ DSST performance). The present results supported this hypothesis; we observed considerable variability both in individuals’ DSST performance and in their neural activity in a frontoparietal network that has been associated with working memory (e.g., Curtis and
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by NIH grant MH61636 (BR). This work benefited from conversations with John Gabrieli, Glenn Stebbins and John Duncan. The authors wish to acknowledge the assistance of Dana A. Eldreth, Donovan Rebbechi, and Michael A. Motes.
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