Involvement of the inferior frontal junction in cognitive control: Meta‐analyses of switching and Stroop studies

Abstract

There is growing evidence that a specific region in the posterior frontolateral cortex is involved intimately in cognitive control processes. This region, located in the vicinity of the junction of the inferior frontal sulcus and the inferior precentral sulcus, was termed the inferior frontal junction (IFJ). The IFJ was shown to be involved in the updating of task representations and to be activated commonly in a within-subject investigation of a task-switching paradigm, the Stroop task, and a verbal n-back task. Here, we investigate the involvement of the IFJ in cognitive control by employing a meta-analytic approach. Two quantitative meta-analyses of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies were conducted. One meta-analysis included frontal activations from task-switching, set-shifting, and stimulus-response (S-R) reversal studies, the other included frontal activations from color-word Stroop studies. Results showed highly significant clustering of activations in the IFJ in both analyses. These results provide strong evidence for the consistent involvement of the IFJ in both switching and Stroop paradigms. Furthermore, they support our concept of areal specialization in the frontolateral cortex, which posits that it is not only the middorsolateral part that plays an important role in cognitive control, but also the IFJ. Finally, our results demonstrate how quantitative meta-analyses can be used to test hypotheses about the involvement of specific brain regions in cognitive control.

Domain-general involvement of the posterior frontolateral cortex in time-based resource-sharing in working memory: An fMRI study

“…The role of the IFJ in WM and cognitive control: Uploading relevant rule information As we mentioned before, studies have shown the IFJ to be crucially involved in cognitive control and, more specifically, in task switching (Brass and von Cramon, 2002, 2004a, 2004bBrass et al, 2005;Derrfuss et al, 2005;Dove et al, 2000;Kim et al, 2012;Sylvester et al, 2003). Studies have also observed the IFJ to be involved in interference control and updating (e.g., Braver et al, 1997;de Fockert et al, 2004;Derrfuss et al, 2004Derrfuss et al, , 2005Mead et al, 2002;Roth et al, 2009;Sylvester et al, 2003).…”

“…More specifically, we examined the pattern of activation in the left and right IFJ. Importantly, these ROIs were defined independently from the aforementioned analyses by using the coordinates for the IFJ as reported in the meta-analysis of Derrfuss et al (2005). The coordinates were converted into MNI coordinates using GingerALE.…”

“…Studies have also observed the IFJ to be involved in interference control and updating (e.g., Braver et al, 1997;de Fockert et al, 2004;Derrfuss et al, 2004Derrfuss et al, , 2005Mead et al, 2002;Roth et al, 2009;Sylvester et al, 2003). The overlap of these different cognitive functions in the IFJ has so far been explained as reflecting common operations of cognitive control such as task set reconfiguration and updating of general task representations (Derrfuss et al, 2004).…”

“…Task switching has been related to a fronto-parietal network (see Kim et al, 2012, for a meta-analysis). In the frontal cortex, one of the regions that have been most consistently observed in neuroimaging studies of task switching is the Inferior Frontal Junction (IFJ; Brass et al, 2005;Brass and von Cramon, 2002, 2004a, 2004bDerrfuss et al, 2005;Dove et al, 2000;Sylvester et al, 2003). The IFJ is situated at the junction of the precentral sulcus and the inferior frontal sulcus and, as such, anatomically perfectly suited for task switching and task management because it is located at the border of the premotor and prefrontal cortices (Brass and von Cramon, 2002).…”

Lost in localization: The need for a universal coordinate database

“…Structure-based and BA-based searches are unsatisfactory because nearby activations might receive different anatomical labels or different BA designations, and activations quite distant from one another might be given identical anatomical labels or BA designations. For example, activations close to the junction of the inferior frontal sulcus and the inferior precentral sulcus Derrfuss et al, 2004Derrfuss et al, , 2005Derrfuss et al, , 2009) might be referred to as lying in the inferior precentral sulcus, the inferior frontal sulcus, the precentral gyrus, the middle frontal gyrus, the inferior frontal gyrus, pars opercularis, Broca's area, the premotor cortex, or the inferior frontal junction. On the other hand, activations in the most ventral and the most dorsal part of the posterior frontal cortex might both receive the label "precentral gyrus" or "BA 6," although these activations might lie as far as 60 mm apart.…”