2016/11/26 by John D. Medaglia, Medaglia, John D., Weiyu Huang +9
Medicine · Neuroscience · Psychology · #Action Observation and Synchronization #Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications #FOS: Biological sciences #Functional Brain Connectivity Studies #Neurons and Cognition (q-bio.NC) #Traumatic Brain Injury Research
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1611.08751
openalex publication_date 2016/11/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Cognitive flexibility describes the human ability to switch between modes of\nmental function to achieve goals. Mental switching is accompanied by transient\nchanges in brain activity, which must occur atop an anatomical architecture\nthat bridges disparate cortical and subcortical regions by underlying white\nmatter tracts. However, an integrated perspective regarding how white matter\nnetworks might constrain brain dynamics during cognitive processes requiring\nflexibility has remained elusive. To address this challenge, we applied\nemerging tools from graph signal processing to decompose BOLD signals based on\ndiffusion imaging tractography in 28 individuals performing a perceptual task\nthat probed cognitive flexibility. We found that the alignment between\nfunctional signals and the architecture of the underlying white matter network\nwas associated with greater cognitive flexibility across subjects. Signals with\nbehaviorally-relevant alignment were concentrated in the basal ganglia and\nanterior cingulate cortex, consistent with cortico-striatal mechanisms of\ncognitive flexibility. Importantly, these findings are not accessible to\nunimodal analyses of functional or anatomical neuroimaging alone. Instead, by\ntaking a generalizable and concise reduction of multimodal neuroimaging data,\nwe uncover an integrated structure-function driver of human behavior.\n