Predicting stroop effect from spontaneous neuronal activity: a study of regional homogeneity

PLoS One. 2015 May 4;10(5):e0124405. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0124405. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

The Stroop effect is one of the most robust and well-studied phenomena in cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience. However, little is known about the relationship between intrinsic brain activity and the individual differences of this effect. In the present study, we explored this issue by examining whether resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) signals could predict individual differences in the Stroop effect of healthy individuals. A partial correlation analysis was calculated to examine the relationship between regional homogeneity (ReHo) and Stroop effect size, while controlling for age, sex, and framewise displacement (FD). The results showed positive correlations in the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG), the left insula, the ventral anterior cingulate cortex (vACC), and the medial frontal gyrus (MFG), and negative correlation in the left precentral gyrus (LPG). These results indicate the possible influences of the LIFG, the left insula, and the LPG on the efficiency of cognitive control, and demonstrate that the key nodes of default mode network (DMN) may be important in goal-directed behavior and/or mental effort during cognitive control tasks.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Behavior
  • Brain / physiology*
  • Cognition
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Neurons / physiology*
  • Stroop Test*
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31170980, 81271477), the Foundation for the Author of National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of PR China (201107), New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-11-0698), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (SWU1009001).