Schedule of Events | Symposia

Neural Correlates of Concurrent Demands on Cognitive Stability and Flexibility

Poster Session A - Saturday, March 29, 2025, 3:00 – 5:00 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Jinjiang Zhang¹ (jzhang7345@gmail.com), Raphael Geddert¹, Roshni Ammanamanchi¹, Michael Andrew¹, Tobias Egner¹; ¹Duke University

Two core capacities of cognitive control are cognitive stability, the ability to focus attention on a current task while ignoring task-incongruent distracters; and cognitive flexibility, the ability to switch between different tasks. Whether stability and flexibility arise from distinct or overlapping neural mechanisms remains unclear as prior studies have typically investigated these capacities in isolation. We obtained functional magnetic resonance imaging data (fMRI) from 45 adult subjects while they completed a digit parity/magnitude task that independently manipulated trial-level (congruent vs. incongruent stimuli, repeat vs. switch trials) and block-level (low vs. high congruency proportion, low vs. high switch proportion) demands on stability and flexibility. Behavioral results revealed significant main effects of congruency and switch type, as well as interactions between congruency and congruency proportion, and switch type and switch proportion, replicating well-known behavioral signatures of cognitive control over stability and flexibility. Univariate fMRI analyses revealed that switch vs. repeat trials and their interaction with low vs. high switch proportions, was associated with increased BOLD activity in lateral frontoparietal and cingulo-opercular networks, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex. In contrast, incongruent vs. congruent trials and their interaction with low vs. high congruency proportions did not show significant univariate effects, highlighting the need for multivariate approaches. Multivariate representational similarity analysis identified neural patterns associated with congruency, switch type, and their interactions with congruency and switch proportions in lateral frontoparietal and cingulo-opercular networks. These results suggest concurrent demands on conflict-control and task-switching rely on both distinct and overlapping neural substrates.

Topic Area: EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Goal maintenance & switching