Inter-Individual Differences In The Attentional Executive Control Network

Executive function is high-level cognitive abilities of the individuals,which could help people consciously control their own thoughts and actions.And it is a crucial skill for the survival and development of human being.Attentional executive control network reflects some core dimensions of the broader concept of “Executive Functions”,such as the suppression of attention,resolution of conflict and resistance to interference and so on.In previous researches,however,it is a lack of attention and discussion to the neural mechanisms on the inter-individual differences in the attentional executive control network.In order to better understand the brain neural mechanisms including the interaction of the large-scale networks behind the behavior of the inter-individual differences in the attentional executive control network,based on different perspectives,we designed three studies using a variety of data analysis methods to jointly explore the processing mechanisms in the human brain of the inter-individual differences in the attentional executive control network.In the first study,we focused on not only the performance and the activation areas while carrying out the attentional control network task,but also the time series of the blood oxygen level dependent signals in the task fMRI.Then in the second study,the method of psychophysiological interaction(PPI)analysis was applied to further comprehend the performance of large-scale brain networks and the interactive relationship among the distinct networks when the task was completed.In the third study the performance of the participants was investigated employing the combined methods of regional homogeneity(ReHo)and functional connectivity(FC)analysis in fMRI resting state activity.The main conclusions of this paper are as follows:(1)There are inter-individual differences in the efficiency of the behavior of attentional control network task.The difference is not only reflected in the degree of brain activation and the time course of the blood oxygen level dependent signals,but in the relationship between the key brain areas of large-scale networks and other relevant brain regions.(2)The two groups of participants with different task performance make diverse use of large-scale networks,and the different large-scale networks play different roles in individual cognitive activities.The connectivity strength between the frontal-parietal network and other related brain regions could positively predict the executive functions but that between the salience network and other related brain regions had a negative correlation with this ability.Therefore,we speculate that the separation in the functions of the frontal-parietal network and the salience network reflects the individual's trade-off between the proactive control and the reactive control in the dual mechanisms of cognitive(DMC).(3)The inter-individual differences in the attentional executive control network embodied in the diversity of the interaction modes between the various large-scale brain networks.Research on the inter-individual differences in the attentional executive control network could be explored from the three following aspects,which are the relationship between the frontalparietal network and the default mode network,the separation in the functions of the frontalparietal network and the salience network and the functional connectivity within the default mode network.(4)The combined methods of regional homogeneity and functional connectivity analysis in fMRI resting state activity show the inter-individual differences in the attentional executive control network,so it could be used to predict the performance when the attentional control network task is completed.And it is a feasible means to study the neural mechanisms in the inter-individual differences in the field of psychology and behavior.