Left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex supports context-dependent prioritisation of off-task thought.

ABSTRACT: When environments lack compelling goals, humans often let their minds wander to thoughts with greater personal relevance; however, we currently do not understand how this context-dependent prioritisation process operates. Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) maintains goal representations in a context-dependent manner. Here, we show this region is involved in prioritising off-task thought in an analogous way. In a whole brain analysis we established that neural activity in DLPFC is high both when 'on-task' under demanding conditions and 'off-task' in a non-demanding task. Furthermore, individuals who increase off-task thought when external demands decrease, show lower correlation between neural signals linked to external tasks and lateral regions of the DMN within DLPFC, as well as less

SUBMITTER: Turnbull A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6707151 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature