FMRI studies of Stroop tasks reveal unique roles of anterior and posterior brain systems in attentional selection
Open accessAbstract
The brain's attentional system identifies and selects information that is task-relevant while ignoring information that is task-irrelevant. In two experiments using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined the effects of varying task-relevant information compared to task-irrelevant information. In the first experiment, we compared patterns of activation as attentional demands were increased for two Stroop tasks that differed in the task-relevant information, but not the task-irrelevant information: a color-word task and a spatial-word task. Distinct subdivisions of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the precuneus became activated for each task, indicating differential sensitivity of these regions to task-relevant information (e.g., spatial information vs. color). In the second experiment, we compared patterns of activation with increased attentional demands for two Stroop tasks that differed in task-irrelevant information, but not task-relevant information: a color-word task and color-object task. Little differentiation in activation for dorsolateral prefrontal and precuneus regions was observed, indicating a relative insensitivity of these regions to task-irrelevant information. However, we observed a differentiation in the pattern of activity for posterior regions. There were unique areas of activation in parietal regions for the color-word task and in occipitotemporal regions for the color-object task. No increase in activation was observed in regions responsible for processing the perceptual attribute of color. The results of this second experiment indicate that attentional selection in tasks such as the Stroop task, which contain multiple potential sources of relevant information (e.g., the word vs. its ink color), acts more by modulating the processing of task-irrelevant information than by modulating processing of task-relevant information.
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Posterior DLPFC implements a task set to exert top-down attentional control.
“According to our Cascade-of-Control model (20), posterior regions of DLPFC implement a task set to exert top-down attentional control (24, 25).”
From Attentional Control Activation Relates to Working Memory in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (2010) · cites this paper as [24]
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- Authors
- Banich, M. T., Milham, M. P., Atchley, R., Cohen, N. J., Webb, A., Wszalek, T., Kramer, A. F., Liang, Z.-P., Wright, A., Shenker, J., & Magin, R.
- Affiliations
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
- Publisher
- MIT Press
- Published
- 2000-11-01
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 988-1000
- ISSN
- 0898-929X (ISSN-L)
- 1530-8898
- OpenAlex
- W2150946208
- Cited by
- 429
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 24 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 23 · 2014: 24 · 2013: 22 · 2012: 25
- FWCI
- 6.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- other-oa
- Locations
- Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- KU ScholarWorks (The University of Kansas) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Visual Attention and Saliency Detection
- Keywords
- Stroop task, selective attention, task-irrelevant information, task-relevant information, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, precuneus, parietal cortex, occipitotemporal cortex, attentional demands
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Attention, Brain, Brain Mapping, Color Perception, Female, Form Perception, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Language, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Perception
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