Tommaso Gili1,2, Federico Giove1,2, Vittorio Iacovella2, Emiliano Macaluso3, Bruno Maraviglia2,3
1Enrico Fermi Centre, Rome, Italy; 2Physics, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy; 3IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy
Attention-demanding cognitive tasks not only increase activity in regions whose function supports task execution, but also trigger activity decreases in regions supporting task-unrelated processes. The set of brain regions that de-activates during goal-oriented tasks has been termed the default mode network (DMN). Here we asked whether the level of cognitive load (n-back memory tasks) modulates the pattern of correlated activity within the DMN. In addition our analyses of functional connectivity fMRI also looked for possible effects of cognitive load on the correlation between the default mode network and fronto-parietal regions that activate during cognitive tasks.
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