Meta-Control Demands at the Beginning of Extended Tasks are Categorically Different from Control Demands During Their Subsequent Execution

Abstract

The well-known activation of frontoparietal regions forms the basis of neuroscientific accounts of cognitive control. Control interventions that activate frontoparietal regions also generate a characteristic psychophysiological signature that, amongst others, is accompanied by increased pupil size. Here, we characterize a distinct but key aspect of cognitive control that deactivates these frontoparietal regions and decreases pupil size. Our goals are completed through extended tasks that are hierarchically controlled and executed as a single entity despite consisting of numerous steps (e.g., preparing coffee, writing emails). This is achieved through higher-level programs instantiated at the beginning of their execution that will go on to organize cognition and instantiate various control interventions during the ensuing task execution. Difficult episodes begin with the instantiation of more complex higher-level programs that will go on to organize a more complex set of control interventions. However, the demands related to instantiating these more complex programs are likely to be distinct from those related to control interventions. Control interventions, like selective attention, inhibition, etc., involve making goal-directed changes in sensory and motor regions to select the correct incoming information and action. In contrast, instantiating higher-level programs involves embodying the set of commands that will go on to make the relevant goal-directed neurocognitive changes later in the ensuing extended task by organizing and instantiating the correct set of control interventions. Across four experiments, we show that while executing difficult episodes activates frontoparietal regions and increases pupil size, the beginning of these difficult episodes, i.e., junctures where more complex higher-level programs are instantiated, deactivates these same frontoparietal regions and decreases pupil size. We thus show that cognitive control related to difficult extended tasks involves categorically different demands at the beginning compared to during their subsequent execution.