Cognitive Mode Detectable with Task-Based fMRI: Focus on Visual Features (FoVF)

In the context of task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), cognitive modes can be defined as task-general cognitive/sensory/motor processes which reliably elicit specific blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal pattern configurations. A number of cognitive modes are detectable with task-based fMRI. Here we present Focus on Visual Features (FoVF), a cognitive mode that demonstrates both activation and deactivation depending on the task context. The BOLD signal configurations associated with FoVF are modulated by a range of tasks, and here, we present six. For each task, we report: (1) specific pattern-based (as opposed to coordinate-based) anatomical details essential for distinguishing FoVF from other BOLD-based cognitive modes, and (2) task-induced BOLD signal changes associated with FoVF over a range of task conditions. In order to facilitate recognition, we playfully nicknamed the anatomical patterns specific to the FoVF cognitive mode as follows: (1) Stay Puff and (2) Old Blue Eyes. Evidence for the FoVF cognitive mode was derived from the timing and magnitude of task-induced BOLD signal changes elicited by the following types of tasks: working memory (verbal and spatial), thought generation, evidence integration, task switching, and handedness. This evidence consistently supported the FoVF cognitive mode as involving activation when there is focus on the features of the visual display to enhance task performance, and deactivation when features of the visual display are irrelevant to the task, or when attending to the features may detract from task performance.