PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - K.G. Garner
AU  - M.I. Garrido
AU  - P.E. Dux
TI  - Cognitive capacity limits are remediated by practice-induced plasticity in a striatal-cortical network
AID  - 10.1101/564450
DP  - 2019 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 564450
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/03/01/564450.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/03/01/564450.full
AB  - Humans show striking limitations in information processing when multitasking, yet can modify these limits with practice. Such limitations have been attributed to the capacity of a frontal-parietal network, but recent models of decision-making implicate a striatal-cortical network. We adjudicated these accounts by implementing a dynamic causal modelling (DCM) analysis of a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) dataset, where 100 participants completed a multitasking paradigm in the scanner, before and after engaging in a multitasking (N=50) or an active control (N=50) practice regimen. We observed that multitasking costs, and their practice related remediation, are best explained by modulations in information transfer between the striatum and the cortical areas that represent stimulus-response mappings. Neither multitasking nor practice modulated direct frontal-parietal connectivity. Our results support the view that limits in cognitive capacity are striatally driven, and moderated by the interplay of information exchange from the putamen to the pre-supplementary motor area.