Behavioral flexibility depends on our capacity to build and leverage abstract knowledge about tasks. Recently, two separate lines of research have implicated distinct brain networks in representing abstract task information: a frontoparietal cortical network, and a network involving the medial temporal lobe (MTL), medial prefrontal, and orbitofrontal cortex (OMPFC). These observations have mostly been made in parallel, with little attempt to understand their relationship. Here, we hypothesize that abstract task representations in these networks differ primarily in format, not content. Namely, that the MTL–OMPFC network maintains task knowledge in a flexible cognitive map, while the frontoparietal network formats this knowledge as productions that facilitate action selection. We discuss novel implications and predictions for behavioral flexibility arising from this hypothesis.

行为灵活性取决于我们建立和利用有关任务的抽象知识的能力。最近，两个独立的研究方向表明不同的大脑网络代表抽象任务信息：额顶皮质网络，以及涉及内侧颞叶 (MTL)、内侧前额叶和眶额皮质 (OMPFC) 的网络。这些观察大多是平行进行的，几乎没有试图了解它们之间的关系。在这里，我们假设这些网络中的抽象任务表示主要在格式而非内容上有所不同。即，MTL-OMPFC 网络在灵活的认知地图中维护任务知识，而额顶叶网络将这些知识格式化为促进动作选择的产品。