Connectome and Cognition

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Sebastian Markett
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: from 2017 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 388570846

The human connectome refers to the brain's wiring diagram, both structurally and functionally. Connectomes can be reconstructed from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data. Although MRI studies to date have identified a set of networks embedded into the connectome, most research has focused on functional connectivity outside of task-conditions (i.e brain's resting state). Consistently, the relationship between these networks and diverging task conditions are still poorly understood. In particular, the link between resting-state networks and changes in brain activity and connectivity during cognitive performance - such as attention - remain an under-studied topic. It becomes more and more clear that complex behavior such as cognition is governed by a connected set of different brain regions whose integration is crucial for a purposeful adaptation to the environment. Connectomics offers a framework to explain these relationships holistically. The here proposed research takes a network scientific perspective on attention: We plan to reconcile the attentional network theory by Posner & Petersen (1990) with the theory on resting-state networks and examine their relationship with the organization principles of the underlying structural brain network. The attention network theory postulates three largely independent yet interacting attention systems. We plan to collect data with the revised attentional network test to activate the three attention systems and examine to what extend the attention system depend on divergent or shared network resources and how this relates to behavior. Ideally, this will add to our understanding of the independence and interaction of different attentional functions and higher cognition.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants