Neural Coding for Instruction-Based Task Sets in Human Frontoparietal and Visual Cortex.

ABSTRACT: Task preparation has traditionally been thought to rely upon persistent representations of instructions that permit their execution after delays. Accumulating evidence suggests, however, that accurate retention of task knowledge can be insufficient for successful performance. Here, we hypothesized that instructed facts would be organized into a task set; a temporary coding scheme that proactively tunes sensorimotor pathways according to instructions to enable highly efficient "reflex-like" performance. We devised a paradigm requiring either implementation or memorization of novel stimulus-response mapping instructions, and used multivoxel pattern analysis of neuroimaging data to compare neural coding of instructions during the pretarget phase. Although participants could retain instruction

SUBMITTER: Muhle-Karbe PS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6606446 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature