Timing of Task-Set Reconfiguration in Frontal and Parietal Cortices

Neuroimaging studies have shown that the inferior frontal junction area (IFJ, near the junction of inferior frontal and inferior precentral sulci) and the intraparietal sulcus are involved in task preparation. Theories based on animal research have assumed that the contribution of the prefrontal cortex is to bias processing in posterior brain regions. If this assumption holds true, one would expect prefrontal cortex activation preceding parietal activation. The present study tested this assumption by combining results from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) providing high spatial resolution and event-r…