Cognitive flexibility: Neural mechanisms and clinical considerations
Zoom - access via WIN Intranet https://sharepoint.nexus.ox.ac.uk/sites/NDCN/FMRIB/SitePages/WIN%20Wednesday%20Meeting%20Details.aspx
Executive control processes and flexible behaviors rely on the integrity of, and dynamic interactions between, large-scale brain networks. The right insular cortex is a critical component of a salience/midcingulo-insular network that is thought to mediate interactions between brain networks involved in externally oriented (central executive/lateral frontoparietal network) and internally oriented (default mode/medial frontoparietal network) processes. How these brain systems reconfigure with development is a critical question for cognitive neuroscience, with implications for neurodevelopmental pathologies affecting brain connectivity. I will describe studies examining how brain network dynamics support flexible behaviors in typical and atypical development, presenting evidence suggesting a unique role for the dorsal anterior insular from studies of meta-analytic connectivity modeling, dynamic functional connectivity, and structural connectivity. These findings from adults, typically developing children, and children with autism suggest that structural and functional maturation of insular pathways is a critical component of the process by which human brain networks mature to support complex, flexible cognitive processes throughout the lifespan.
Date: 7 October 2020, 15:00 (Wednesday, 0th week, Michaelmas 2020)
Venue: Venue to be announced
Speaker: Prof Lucina Uddin (University of Miami)
Organising department: Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences
Organiser: Nancy Rawlings (University of Oxford)
Part of: WIN Wednesdays Seminar Series
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Nancy Rawlings