Brain Activity Associated With Expected Task Difficulty

• Published in: Frontiers in human neuroscience 2019-08, Vol.13, p.286-286
• Main Authors: de Dreu, Miek J., Schouwenaars, Irena T., Rutten, Geert-Jan M., Ramsey, Nick F., Jansma, Johan M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: alertness; brain activity; Brain research; cognition; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive ability; Deactivation; default mode network; Design; Executive function; fMRI; Human Neuroscience; Medical research; mental preparation; Neurosurgery; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Prefrontal cortex; Studies; Temporal cortex; Thalamus; Visual cortex; Visual perception; Visual stimuli
• ISSN: 1662-5161; 1662-5161
• DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2019.00286

Previous research shows that people are able to use a cue to mentally prepare for a cognitive challenge. The response to a cue has been defined as phasic alertness which is reflected in faster responses and increased activity in frontal, parietal, thalamic, and visual brain regions. We examine if and how phasic alertness can be tuned to the expected difficulty of an upcoming challenge. If people in general are able to tune their level of alertness, than an inability to tune may be linked to disease. Twenty-two healthy volunteers performed a cued visual perception task with two levels of task difficulty. Performance and brain activity were compared between these two levels. Performance was lower for difficult stimuli than for easy stimuli. Participants showed activation in a network associated with central executive function and deactivation in regions of the default mode network, and visual cortex for both cue types. Deactivation was significantly stronger for cues signaling difficult stimuli than for cues signaling easy stimuli. This effect was most prominent in medial prefrontal gyrus, visual, and temporal cortices. Activation did not differ between the cues. Our study shows that phasic alertness is represented by activated as well as deactivated brain regions. However only deactivated brain regions tuned their level of activity to the expected task difficulty. These results suggest that people in general are able to tune their level of alertness to an upcoming task. Cognition may be facilitated by a brain-state coupled to expectations about an upcoming cognitive challenge. Unique identifier = 842003004 .