Involvement of rostral prefrontal cortex in selection between stimulus‐oriented and stimulus‐independent thought
Abstract
We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate brain activity while healthy subjects performed three different tasks, each of which alternated between: (i) phases relying on stimulus-oriented thought (i.e. cognitive processes provoked by incoming sensory information); and (ii) phases relying on stimulus-independent thought (i.e. cognitive processes that were not related to any information in the immediate sensory environment). Within each task, the two phases were matched as closely as possible. In all three tasks, lateral rostral prefrontal cortex was transiently activated by a switch between stimulus-oriented and stimulus-independent thought (regardless of the direction of the switch). Medial rostral prefrontal cortex consistently exhibited sustained activity for stimulus-oriented vs. stimulus-independent thought. These results suggest the involvement of rostral prefrontal cortex in selection between stimulus-oriented and stimulus-independent cognitive processes.
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At least some of the processing supported by prefrontal structures is material-nonspecific.
“at least some of the processing supported by prefrontal structures has been shown to be material-nonspecific (Burgess et al., 2001; 2003; Gilbert et al., 2005).”
From The case for the development and use of ecologically valid measures of executive function in experimental and clinical neuropsychology (2006) · cites this paper as Gilbert et al., 2005
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“Taken those information together, it is hypothesized that the rlPFC is a flexible hub that facilitates adaptive functional connectivity and switching between networks according to ongoing task demands (Cole et al., 2013; Desrochers et al., 2015; Gilbert et al., 2005).”
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Gilbert, S. J., Frith, C. D., & Burgess, P. W.
- Affiliations
- University College London (GB)
- Venue
- European Journal of Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2005-03
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 1423-1431
- ISSN
- 0953-816X (ISSN-L)
- 1460-9568
- OpenAlex
- W2134647591
- Cited by
- 193
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 6.26
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- European Journal of Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust
- Medical Research Council
- Economic and Social Research Council
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Mind wandering and attention
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Keywords
- rostral prefrontal cortex, cognitive control, task switching, lateral prefrontal cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, sensory processing
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Brain Mapping, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Functional Laterality, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Mental Processes, Oxygen, Photic Stimulation, Psychomotor Performance, Reaction Time, Task Performance and Analysis, Prefrontal Cortex
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