Anterior insular cortex is a bottleneck of cognitive control

Abstract

Cognitive control, with a limited capacity, is a core process in human cognition for the coordination of thoughts and actions. Although the regions involved in cognitive control have been identified as the cognitive control network (CCN), it is still unclear whether a specific region of

The functional anatomy of cognitive control: A domain‐general brain network for uncertainty processing

“…The CCN is a higher‐level system that processes and coordinates inputs from domain‐ and modality‐specific brain networks. These inputs are re‐represented in the CCN as abstract information, which can be quantified as information entropy, surprise, and information rate, determined by both inputs and the mental algorithms adopted (Fan, ; Fan et al, ; Spagna, Mackie, & Fan, ; Wu et al, , ). Whereas cognitive load is typically ambiguously defined in studies investigating the brain‐behavior association, our information theory account of cognitive control defines cognitive load as the amount of information to process (Wu et al, ), providing a specific framework for the investigation of the functions of the CCN.…”

“…Taken together, the manipulations in various tasks typically used to investigate cognitive control can be re‐conceptualized as manipulations of levels of uncertainty (Fan, ; Mackie & Fan, ). The information theory account is supported by accumulating evidence from both behavioral (Y. Chen et al, ; Fan, Guise, Liu, & Wang, ; Mackie et al, ; Wu, Dufford, Mackie, Egan, & Fan, ) and neuroimaging (Fan et al, ; Wu et al, , ) studies, and it provides a framework to reveal a common computational mechanism of cognitive control and the corresponding neural network supporting this psychological construct.…”

“…Cognitive control serves as a high‐level function that coordinates mental operations under conditions of uncertainty to select and prioritize processing of important information (Fan, ; Wu et al, , ). Converging evidence suggests that cognitive control is commonly involved in executive control, working memory, and decision‐making under conditions of uncertainty (Botvinick, ; Y. Chen et al, ; Coutlee & Huettel, ; Fan et al, ; Hirsh, Mar, & Peterson, ; Huettel, Song, & McCarthy, ; Mackie, Van Dam, & Fan, ; Mushtaq, Bland, & Schaefer, ; Ridderinkhof, Ullsperger, Crone, & Nieuwenhuis, ).…”

“…Numerous functional neuroimaging studies have shown common task-positive activation of a large-scale brain network, including the frontal eye fields (FEF), the areas near/along the intraparietal sulcus (IPS), the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), the anterior insular cortex (AIC), and subcortical structures including the thalamus and striatum in the domains of executive control, working memory, and decision-making. This large-scale network has been considered as the "cognitive control network" (CCN) (Fan, 2014;Niendam et al, 2012;Wu et al, 2018Wu et al, , 2019. Abundant evidence exists showing that the regions of the CCN co-activate in the Flanker and Color-Word Stroop conflict tasks (e.g., Fan et al, 2003;van Veen & Carter, 2005), Go/No-Go tasks (e.g., Blasi et al, 2006;Cai, Ryali, Chen, Li, & Menon, 2014;Schulz, Bedard, Czarnecki, & Fan, 2011;Sebastian, Pohl, et al, 2013), Nback tasks (e.g., Chechko et al, 2015;Glabus, 2003), and choice selection tasks (e.g., K.-M. Lee, Wade, & Lee, 2006;Wu et al, 2018).…”

“…Cognitive control serves as a high-level function that coordinates mental operations under conditions of uncertainty to select and prioritize processing of important information (Fan, 2014;Wu et al, 2018Wu et al, , 2019. Converging evidence suggests that cognitive control is commonly involved in executive control, working memory, and decisionmaking under conditions of uncertainty (Botvinick, 2007;Y.…”