A middle ground where executive control meets semantics: the neural substrates of semantic control are topographically sandwiched between the multiple-demand and default-mode systems

Abstract

Semantic control is the capability to operate on meaningful representations, selectively focusing on certain aspects of meaning while purposefully ignoring other aspects based on one’s behavioural aim. This ability is especially vital for comprehending figurative/ambiguous language. It remains unclear, at the topographical level, why/how regions involved in semantic control seem reliably juxtaposed alongside other functionally specialised regions in the association cortex. We investigated this issue by characterising how semantic control regions topographically relate to the default-mode network (associated with memory and abstract cognition) and multiple-demand network (associated with executive control). Topographically, we confirmed that semantic control areas were sandwiched by the default-mode and multi-demand networks, forming an orderly arrangement observed both at the individual- and group-level. Functionally, semantic control regions exhibited ‘hybrid’ responses, fusing a preference for cognitively demanding processing (multiple-demand) and a preference for meaningful representations (default-mode) into a domain-specific preference for difficult operations on meaningful representations. When projected onto the principal gradient of human connectome, the neural activity of semantic control showed a robustly dissociable trajectory from visuospatial control, implying different roles in the functional transition from sensation to cognition. We discuss why the hybrid functional profile of semantic control regions might result from their intermediate topographical positions.