Integration and segregation of large-scale brain networks during short-term task automatization

Holger Mohr (), Uta Wolfensteller, Richard F. Betzel, Bratislav Mišić, Olaf Sporns, Jonas Richiardi and Hannes Ruge
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Holger Mohr: Technische Universität Dresden
Uta Wolfensteller: Technische Universität Dresden
Richard F. Betzel: Indiana University
Bratislav Mišić: Indiana University
Olaf Sporns: Indiana University
Jonas Richiardi: Laboratory of Neurology and Imaging of Cognition, University of Geneva
Hannes Ruge: Technische Universität Dresden

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract The human brain is organized into large-scale functional networks that can flexibly reconfigure their connectivity patterns, supporting both rapid adaptive control and long-term learning processes. However, it has remained unclear how short-term network dynamics support the rapid transformation of instructions into fluent behaviour. Comparing fMRI data of a learning sample (N=70) with a control sample (N=67), we find that increasingly efficient task processing during short-term practice is associated with a reorganization of large-scale network interactions. Practice-related efficiency gains are facilitated by enhanced coupling between the cingulo-opercular network and the dorsal attention network. Simultaneously, short-term task automatization is accompanied by decreasing activation of the fronto-parietal network, indicating a release of high-level cognitive control, and a segregation of the default mode network from task-related networks. These findings suggest that short-term task automatization is enabled by the brain’s ability to rapidly reconfigure its large-scale network organization involving complementary integration and segregation processes.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13217

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