Towards an ontology of cognitive processes and their neural substrates: A structural equation modeling approach.

TitleTowards an ontology of cognitive processes and their neural substrates: A structural equation modeling approach.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2020
AuthorsEich T, Parker D, Gazes Y, Razlighi Q, Habeck C, Stern Y
JournalPLoS One
Volume15
Issue2
Paginatione0228167
Date Published2020
ISSN1932-6203
KeywordsAdult, Behavior, Biological Ontologies, Brain, Cognition, Female, Humans, Latent Class Analysis, Male, Models, Neurological, Young Adult
Abstract

A key challenge in the field of cognitive neuroscience is to identify discriminable cognitive functions, and then map these functions to brain activity. In the current study, we set out to explore the relationships between performance arising from different cognitive tasks thought to tap different domains of cognition, and then to test whether these distinct latent cognitive abilities also are subserved by corresponding "latent" brain substrates. To this end, we tested a large sample of adults under the age of 40 on twelve cognitive tasks as they underwent fMRI scanning. Exploratory factor analysis revealed 4-factor model, dissociating tasks into processes corresponding to episodic memory retrieval, reasoning, speed of processing and vocabulary. An analysis of the topographic covariance patterns of the BOLD-response acquired during each task similarity also converged on four neural networks that corresponded to the 4 latent factors. These results suggest that distinct ontologies of cognition are subserved by corresponding distinct neural networks.

DOI10.1371/journal.pone.0228167
Alternate JournalPLoS One
PubMed ID32040518
PubMed Central IDPMC7010254
Grant ListK99 AG055684 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States
R00 AG055684 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States
R01 AG038465 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States
K01 AG044467 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States
K01 AG051777 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States
RF1 AG038465 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States
Related Institute: 
Brain Health Imaging Institute (BHII)

Weill Cornell Medicine
Department of Radiology
525 East 68th Street New York, NY 10065