Neural correlates of “analytical-specific visual perception” and degree of task difficulty as investigated by the Mangina-Test: A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study in young healthy adults

Results indicate that a widely distributed bilateral network of brain regions, including the ventral and dorsal occipital cortex, parietal lobule, frontal and supplementary eye field, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and supplementary motor area, was significantly activated during test performance. Moreover, increasing difficulty significantly enhanced the neural response of ventral and dorsal occipital regions, frontal eye field, and superior parietal sulcus bilaterally, as well as the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Conversely, neural activity in the left temporo-parietal junction, inferior frontal gyrus, and bilateral middle-superior temporal cortex was inversely correlated with task difficulty. Results also indicate that performance in the Mangina-Test requires an optimal integration between the enhancement of activity in specific task-related cortical areas and suppression of interfering noise from unrelated brain regions.