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Double dissociation of two cognitive control networks in patients with focal brain lesions

  1. Mark D'Espositoa,d
  1. aHelen Wills Neuroscience Institute and
  2. dDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720;
  3. bUniversity of Amsterdam, 1018 WB Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and
  4. cErnest Gallo Clinic and Research Center, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94608

  1. Edited by Michael Posner, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, and approved May 24, 2010 (received for review February 25, 2010)

Abstract

Neuroimaging studies of cognitive control have identified two distinct networks with dissociable resting state connectivity patterns. This study, in patients with heterogeneous damage to these networks, demonstrates network independence through a double dissociation of lesion location on two different measures of network integrity: functional correlations among network nodes and within-node graph theory network properties. The degree of network damage correlates with a decrease in functional connectivity within that network while sparing the nonlesioned network. Graph theory properties of intact nodes within the damaged network show evidence of dysfunction compared with the undamaged network. The effect of anatomical damage thus extends beyond the lesioned area, but remains within the bounds of the existing network connections. Together this evidence suggests that networks defined by their role in cognitive control processes exhibit independence in resting data.

Footnotes

  • 1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: eminomura{at}berkeley.edu.

  • Author contributions: E.M.N. and M.D. designed research; E.M.N., C.G., and R.M.V. performed research; A.K. and F.P. contributed new analytic tools; E.M.N., C.G., and R.M.V. analyzed data; and E.M.N. and M.D. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1002431107/-/DCSupplemental.

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