Talk title: A domain-general cognitive core in the human brain

Abstract

Three decades of brain imaging consistently link the organization of thoughts and behaviour to circumscribed regions within the association cortices, commonly known as domain-general or multiple-demand (MD) regions. However, the imprecision of classical fMRI has impeded our understanding of how MD regions interact with distributed brain circuits. To address this challenge, we used the high-resolution multimodal MRI approach of the Human Connectome Project to scan participants performing 12 diverse cognitive tasks. The results reveal that, at the individual level, different cognitive demands converge within 9 domain-general territories, tightly circumscribed within frontal, parietal and temporal cortices. Each task exhibits a unique topography characterised by finely detailed activation gradients within domain-general territory, shifted towards adjacent resting-state networks. Importantly, the strongest activations arise at multimodal neurobiological definitions of network borders, where information may be intensively exchanged. These properties extend to specific subcortical and cerebellar structures, suggesting a brain wide system in cognitive control. The results suggest a novel framework whereby partially-specialised networks collaborate with neighbouring MD areas to generate the momentary contents of thought.