Degree
Master of Science
Program
Neuroscience
Supervisor
J Bruce Morton
Abstract
Cognitive control is an executive process that has been associated with a distributed set of cortical regions. These distributed regions appear to cluster into distinct networks with dissociable functions. In this study, independent component analysis was used as a tool to investigate functional connectivity in event-related fMRI data. Extracted networks of interest were functionally characterized using a hybrid task that independently probed moment-to-moment adjustments in control, and stable task-set maintenance. A cinguloinsular network was implicated in the processing of moment-to-moment adjustments in control based on its activation patterns during this task. Subsequently, functional connectivity between two networks previously implicated in control, two default mode networks, and a visual network were investigated overall, and in specific condition windows. Findings from this study emphasize the utility of independent component analysis in directly functionally characterizing dissociable cognitive control networks.
Recommended Citation
Ezekiel, Frederick, "Toward a Functional Characterization of Cognitive Control Networks" (2012). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 619.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/619