Causal interactions between fronto-parietal central executive and default-mode networks in humans

TLDR

Three large‑scale neural networks—central executive, salience, and default mode—are believed to coordinate cognitive and emotional processing, yet direct evidence for their regulatory interactions remains lacking. The authors used noninvasive brain stimulation to excite or inhibit nodes in the central executive and salience networks while recording simultaneous brain imaging to test the hypothesized regulatory mechanism. The study revealed that a node in the central executive network exerts specific inhibitory control over the default mode network, offering mechanistic insight into their role in neuropsychiatric disorders.

Abstract

Significance Three large-scale neural networks are thought to play important roles in cognitive and emotional information processing in humans. It has been theorized that the “central executive” and “salience” networks achieve this by regulating the “default mode” network. Support for this idea comes from correlational neuroimaging studies; however, direct evidence for this neural mechanism is lacking. We tested this hypothesized mechanism by exciting or inhibiting nodes within the central executive and salience networks using noninvasive brain stimulation and observed the results using simultaneous brain imaging. We found that the default mode network is under inhibitory control specifically from a node in the central executive network, which provides mechanistic insights into prior work that implicates these networks in a range of neuropsychiatric disorders.