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Diffusion property and functional connectivity of superior longitudinal fasciculus underpin human metacognition

View ORCID ProfileYunxuan Zheng, View ORCID ProfileDanni Wang, Qun Ye, Futing Zou, View ORCID ProfileYao Li, View ORCID ProfileSze Chai Kwok
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.17.994574
Yunxuan Zheng
1Shanghai Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics, Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics Ministry of Education, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance, Affiliated Mental Health Center (ECNU), School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
3NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science at NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China
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Danni Wang
5School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
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Qun Ye
1Shanghai Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics, Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics Ministry of Education, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance, Affiliated Mental Health Center (ECNU), School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
6Department of Psychology (Scarborough), University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M1C 1A4, Canada
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Futing Zou
1Shanghai Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics, Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics Ministry of Education, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance, Affiliated Mental Health Center (ECNU), School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
7Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403, USA
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Yao Li
5School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
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  • For correspondence: sze-chai.kwok@st-hughs.oxon.org yaoli@sjtu.edu.cn
Sze Chai Kwok
1Shanghai Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics, Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics Ministry of Education, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance, Affiliated Mental Health Center (ECNU), School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
2Division of Natural and Applied Sciences, Duke Kunshan University, Kunshan, Jiangsu, China
3NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science at NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China
4Shanghai Changning Mental Health Center
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  • For correspondence: sze-chai.kwok@st-hughs.oxon.org yaoli@sjtu.edu.cn
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Abstract

Metacognition as the capacity of monitoring one’s own cognition operates across domains. Here, we addressed whether metacognition in different cognitive domains rely on common or distinct neural substrates with combined diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques. After acquiring DTI and resting-state fMRI data, we asked participants to perform a temporal-order memory task and a perceptual discrimination task, followed by trial-specific confidence judgments. DTI analysis revealed that the structural integrity (indexed by fractional anisotropy) in the anterior portion of right superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) was associated with both perceptual and mnemonic metacognitive abilities. Using perturbed mnemonic metacognitive scores produced by inhibiting the precuneus using TMS, the mnemonic metacognition scores did not correlate with individuals’ SLF structural integrity anymore, revealing the relevance of this tract in memory metacognition. In order to further verify the involvement of several cortical regions connected by SLF, we took the TMS-targeted precuneus region as a seed in a functional connectivity analysis and found the functional connectivity between precuneus and two SLF-connected regions (inferior parietal cortex and precentral gyrus) differentially mediated mnemonic but not perceptual metacognition performance. These results illustrate the importance of SLF and a putative white-matter grey-matter circuitry that supports human metacognition.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • Funding: This research received support from Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (Grant No. 201409002800), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 32071060), and Joint Research Institute for Science and Society Incubating Project (S.C.K.); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81671201; 81871083) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University Scientific and Technological Innovation Funds (2019QYA12) (Y.L.).

  • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted October 11, 2020.
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Diffusion property and functional connectivity of superior longitudinal fasciculus underpin human metacognition
Yunxuan Zheng, Danni Wang, Qun Ye, Futing Zou, Yao Li, Sze Chai Kwok
bioRxiv 2020.03.17.994574; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.17.994574
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Diffusion property and functional connectivity of superior longitudinal fasciculus underpin human metacognition
Yunxuan Zheng, Danni Wang, Qun Ye, Futing Zou, Yao Li, Sze Chai Kwok
bioRxiv 2020.03.17.994574; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.17.994574

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