Executive control emerging from dynamic interactions between brain systems mediating language, working memory and attentional processes
Section snippets
Theories of executive functions
Theories of executive functions have frequently postulated a unitary “central executive” that controls, coordinates, and supervises task-specific processing modules (e.g., Baddeley, 1986; Norman & Shallice, 1986). During the last decade substantial efforts have been made to evaluate functional-neuroanatomical models of higher cognitive functions by combining behavioral methods from cognitive psychology with new neuroimaging techniques. Corroborating neuropsychological findings of dissociations
An evolutionary perspective on working memory systems: cognitive differences between humans and non-human primates
The control of non-automatized goal-directed action requires the temporary maintenance of information about current task demands and goals. This function has been ascribed to a “working memory”, that is conceptualized as a set of linked and interacting information processing components which allow temporary storage and simultaneous manipulation of information and which, thus, play a key role for higher cognitive functions such as language, planning and problem-solving (e.g., Baddeley, 1992;
The functional neuroanatomy of human working memory
The first of these studies provided evidence that brain regions involved in explicit verbal rehearsal can be dissociated from a second, prefronto-parietal working memory system subserving non-articulatory maintenance of phonological information. While under single-task conditions, verbal memory activated Broca’s area, the lateral premotor cortex, and parietal areas, silent articulatory suppression was found to eliminate memory-related activity in these “classical” verbal working memory areas.
The relationship between working memory, selective attention, and cognitive control
Interestingly, evidence from numerous neurophysiological and neuroimaging studies suggests that similar prefronto-parietal and prefronto-temporal brain systems are involved both in the temporary maintenance of task-relevant information in working memory (e.g., Fuster, 1989; Goldman-Rakic, 1996; Gruber & von Cramon, 2003; Jonides et al., 1993; LaBar, Gitelman, Parrish, & Mesulam, 1999; Ungerleider et al., 1998), as well as in selective attention which is mediated by the top–down modulation of
In search of the neural correlates of verbal goal retrieval during advance preparation in task switching
With respect to the second working memory system (see Fig. 1 on the right), which presumably evolved together with human language and which repeatedly has been shown to underlie verbal rehearsal and inner speech (Andreasen et al., 1995; Awh et al., 1996; Cohen et al., 1997; Fiez et al., 1996; Gruber, 2001; Gruber, Kleinschmidt, Binkofski, Steinmetz, & von Cramon, 2000; Gruber and von Cramon, 2001a, Gruber and von Cramon, 2003; Jonides et al., 1998; Paulesu, Frith, & Frackowiak, 1993; Petrides,
Dilemmas of control: antagonistic constraints on adaptive behavior
One fascinating question that we have started to investigate in more recent behavioral and functional neuroimaging studies concerns dynamic interactions among the various brain systems involved in different working memory and cognitive control functions. These studies are based on the assumption that a complex, ever-changing environment imposes fluctuating and in part antagonistic requirements on human behavior. These antagonistic requirements can be conceived of in terms of “control dilemmas” (
Conflict-triggered goal shielding and inhibition of distracting stimulus dimensions during task switching
In order to be able to meet the antagonistic requirements of goal maintenance (“shielding”) and goal switching in a changing environment, adaptive behavior presumably has to rely on dynamic interactions between brain systems subserving complementary components of executive control. On the basis of the empirical evidence reported in this selective review, we propose that the brain systems which have been found in previous studies to support different working memory and attentional functions
Towards a neurocognitive model of complementary, interacting components of executive control
In conclusion, animal studies as well as behavioral and neuroimaging studies in humans reviewed in this paper have yielded a number of theoretically significant findings, which we tried to integrate in a hypothetical neurocognitive model of interacting components of executive control that is schematically depicted in Fig. 3. The model is intended as a tentative summary of pertinent findings and shares a number of features with other recent proposals (see, for instance, Botvinick et al., 2001).
Acknowledgments
Some of the studies mentioned in this article are supported by the German Research Council (DFG) in the context of the priority program “Executive functions” (grants Gr 1950/1-1, Go 720/2-1, and Go 720/3-1). We thank the Max Planck Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and in particular D. Yves von Cramon for providing the fMRI facilities that made this work possible. We thank Susanne Karch for her assistance in the acquisition and statistical analyses of neuroimaging data.
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