Isolation of a central bottleneck of information processing with time-resolved fMRI

被引:263
作者
Dux, Paul E. [1 ]
Ivanoff, Jason [1 ]
Asplund, Christopher L. [1 ]
Marois, Rene [1 ]
机构
[1] Vanderbilt Univ, Dept Psychol, Vanderbilt Vis Res Ctr, Ctr Integrat & Cognit Neurosci, Nashville, TN 37203 USA
关键词
D O I
10.1016/j.neuron.2006.11.009
中图分类号
Q189 [神经科学];
学科分类号
071006 ;
摘要
When humans attempt to perform two tasks at once, execution of the first task usually leads to postponement of the second one. This task delay is thought to result from a bottleneck occurring at a central, amodal stage of information processing that precludes two response selection or decision-making operations from being concurrently executed. Using time-resolved functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), here we present a neural basis for such dual-task limitations, e.g. the inability of the posterior lateral prefrontal cortex, and possibly the superior medial frontal cortex, to process two decision-making operations at once. These results suggest that a neural network of frontal lobe areas acts as a central bottleneck of information processing that severely limits our ability to multitask.
引用
收藏
页码:1109 / 1120
页数:12
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