Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Activity in the Fronto-Parietal Multiple-Demand Network is Robustly Associated with Individual Differences in Working Memory and Fluid Intelligence

View ORCID ProfileMoataz Assem, View ORCID ProfileIdan Asher Blank, Zachary Mineroff, Ahmet Ademoglu, Evelina Fedorenko
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/110270
Moataz Assem
1MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Moataz Assem
  • For correspondence: moataz.assem@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk evelina9@mit.edu
Idan Asher Blank
2Brain & Cognitive Sciences Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA, USA
3Department of Psychology, UCLA, Los Angeles CA, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Idan Asher Blank
Zachary Mineroff
2Brain & Cognitive Sciences Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Ahmet Ademoglu
4Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Evelina Fedorenko
2Brain & Cognitive Sciences Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA, USA
5McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA, USA
6Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: moataz.assem@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk evelina9@mit.edu
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Data/Code
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

Numerous brain lesion and fMRI studies have linked individual differences in executive abilities and fluid intelligence to brain regions of the fronto-parietal “multiple-demand” (MD) network. Yet, fMRI studies have yielded conflicting evidence as to whether better executive abilities are associated with stronger or weaker MD activations and whether this relationship is restricted to the MD network. Here, in a large-sample (n=216) fMRI investigation, we found that stronger activity in MD regions – functionally defined in individual participants – was robustly associated with more accurate and faster responses on a spatial working memory task performed in the scanner, as well as fluid intelligence measured independently (n=114). In line with some prior claims about a relationship between language and fluid intelligence, we also found a weak association between activity in the brain regions of the left fronto-temporal language network during an independent passive reading task, and performance on the working memory task. However, controlling for the level of MD activity abolished this relationship, whereas the MD activity-behavior association remained highly reliable after controlling for the level of activity in the language network. Finally, we demonstrate how unreliable MD activity measures, coupled with small sample sizes, could falsely lead to the opposite, negative, association that has been reported in some prior studies. Taken together, these results demonstrate that a core component of individual differences variance in executive abilities and fluid intelligence is selectively and robustly positively associated with the level of activity in the MD network, a result that aligns well with lesion studies.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • - some revisions to the introduction and discussion - add non-parametric statistics to the results - add link to data and code

  • https://osf.io/2tw6j/

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted May 11, 2020.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Data/Code
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Activity in the Fronto-Parietal Multiple-Demand Network is Robustly Associated with Individual Differences in Working Memory and Fluid Intelligence
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Activity in the Fronto-Parietal Multiple-Demand Network is Robustly Associated with Individual Differences in Working Memory and Fluid Intelligence
Moataz Assem, Idan Asher Blank, Zachary Mineroff, Ahmet Ademoglu, Evelina Fedorenko
bioRxiv 110270; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/110270
Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Activity in the Fronto-Parietal Multiple-Demand Network is Robustly Associated with Individual Differences in Working Memory and Fluid Intelligence
Moataz Assem, Idan Asher Blank, Zachary Mineroff, Ahmet Ademoglu, Evelina Fedorenko
bioRxiv 110270; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/110270

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Neuroscience
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4237)
  • Biochemistry (9148)
  • Bioengineering (6788)
  • Bioinformatics (24025)
  • Biophysics (12139)
  • Cancer Biology (9545)
  • Cell Biology (13795)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (7642)
  • Ecology (11716)
  • Epidemiology (2066)
  • Evolutionary Biology (15519)
  • Genetics (10650)
  • Genomics (14333)
  • Immunology (9493)
  • Microbiology (22858)
  • Molecular Biology (9103)
  • Neuroscience (49034)
  • Paleontology (355)
  • Pathology (1484)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2572)
  • Physiology (3850)
  • Plant Biology (8339)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1472)
  • Synthetic Biology (2296)
  • Systems Biology (6197)
  • Zoology (1302)