PFC

• Cold cognition


  Functions that don't involve emotional or value-based judgement
• Hot cognition


  Functions that involve emotional or value-based judgement
• PFC


  • Plays a key role in organised, goal-directed behaviour
  • Evidence that PFC can be fractionated into different functions but also disagreement, even about what the fundamental executive functions are
  • Multiple demand network hypothesis offers an alternative viewpoint - integrated network involved in performing cognitively demanding tasks
• Struss et al (2007) findings:

  • Right lateral PFC – monitoring – Miyake’s “updating” variable
  • Left lateral PFC – task setting – necessary for shifting as in Miyake’s model
  • Left medial PFC – energising.  No space for inhibition

  Inhibition may not exist at the psychological level
• Duncan & Owen (2000) - Muliple demand network

  • Constructs attentional episodes
  • Neurons can encode/represent the info within current focus of attention
  • Adaptive coding – PFC neurons adapt their responses depending on task demands
• Woolgar et al (2011) – fMRI evidence for coding of info

  • Used multivoxel pattern analysis

  Findings:

  • Frontal and parietal regions did encode info about the position of the stimuli showed strongest coding of rules
• Aron et al (2003)

  • Importance of right inferior frontal cortex for response inhibition

  Findings:

  Performance = strongly related to size of lesion
• Miyake et al (2000)

  • Factor analysis of executive function

  Findings:

  • 3 factors which accounted for performance on tasks

  1. Shifting – shift between tasks
  2. Updating – updating contents to WM
  3. Inhibition – inhibiting prepotent responses