Many real-life situations require flexible behavior in changing environments. Evidence suggests that anticipation of conflict or task difficulty results in behavioral and neural allocation of task-relevant resources. Here we used a high- and low-interference version of an item-recognition task to examine the neurobehavioral underpinnings of context-sensitive adjustment in working memory (WM). We hypothesized that task environments that included high-interference trials would require participants to allocate neurocognitive resources to adjust to the more demanding task context. The results of two independent behavioral experiments showed enhanced WM performance in the high-interference context, which indicated that a high-interference context improves performance on non-interference trials. A third behavioral experiment showed that when WM load was increased, this effect was no longer significant. Neuroimaging results further showed greater engagement of inferior frontal gyrus, striatum, parietal cortex, hippocampus, and midbrain in participants performing the task in the high- than in the low-interference context. This effect could arise from an active or dormant mode of anticipation that seems to engage fronto-striatal and midbrain regions to flexibly adjust resources to task demands. Our results extend the model of conflict adaptation beyond trial-to-trial adjustments by showing that a high interference context affects both behavioral and biological aspects of cognition.

中文翻译：

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在高干扰的工作记忆环境中，行为促进和大脑反应增强。

许多现实生活中的情况要求在不断变化的环境中采取灵活的行为。有证据表明，对冲突或任务难度的预期会导致任务相关资源的行为和神经分配。在这里，我们使用项目识别任务的高干扰和低干扰版本来检查工作记忆（WM）中上下文相关调整的神经行为基础。我们假设包括高干扰试验在内的任务环境将要求参与者分配神经认知资源，以适应要求更高的任务环境。两项独立的行为实验的结果表明，在高干扰环境下WM性能得到增强，这表明高干扰环境可以提高无干扰试验的性能。第三个行为实验表明，当WM负载增加时，此效果不再显着。神经影像学结果进一步显示，在低干扰情况下，参加这项任务的参与者的额叶下回，纹状体，顶叶皮层，海马和中脑的参与度更高。这种影响可能是由于主动的或休眠的预期模式引起的，该模式似乎使额叶纹状体和中脑区域参与进来，以灵活地根据任务需求调整资源。我们的研究结果表明，高干扰环境会影响认知的行为和生物学方面，因此我们的结果将冲突适应模型扩展到了审判到审判的调整之外。海马和中脑的参与者在高干扰情况下比低干扰情况下执行任务。这种影响可能是由于主动的或休眠的预期模式引起的，该模式似乎使额叶纹状体和中脑区域参与进来，以灵活地根据任务需求调整资源。我们的研究结果表明，高干扰环境会影响认知的行为和生物学方面，因此我们的结果将冲突适应模型扩展到了审判到审判的调整之外。海马和中脑的参与者在高干扰情况下比低干扰情况下执行任务。这种影响可能是由于主动的或休眠的预期模式引起的，该模式似乎使额叶纹状体和中脑区域参与进来，以灵活地根据任务需求调整资源。我们的研究结果表明，高干扰环境会影响认知的行为和生物学方面，因此我们的结果将冲突适应模型扩展到了审判到审判的调整之外。