Figure 1: Meta-analysis and univariate analysis shows DMN engagement during the two tasks. (a) and (b) demonstrate the NeuroSynth meta-analysis results, using “attention*” or “execut*” as keywords to search for goal-directed tasks that require attention and executive function. (a) Forward inference shows that DMN subregions are active in the tasks. The forward inference map is produced by calculating the convergence of brain regions most consistently activated by certain cognitive processes. (b) Reverse inference shows that not many DMN regions are specifically associated with these tasks. The reverse inference map is calculated as the likelihood of a search term being used in a study given the presence of reported activation, and it reflects the brain activation specific to a certain cognitive process (Yarkoni et al., 2011). (c) and (d) show that activation of posterior DMN regions is associated with the N-back and RP task (from the HCP database). Warm/cold regions in the brain heatmap indicate higher/lower activity in the difficult condition compared to the easy condition. For panels (a) and (b) standardised Z scores and for panels (c) and (d) T-scores indicating activation strength are provided with colour scales. For highlighting activation in relation to the DMN, 3D renderings of the DMN are shown in shaded grey, on which our activated regions are superimposed. This was constructed by superimposing the Z-score maps (with the cut-off of 3) and T-scores (of
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