Comprehension of computer code relies primarily on domain-general executive brain regions
Computer programming is a novel cognitive tool that has transformed modern society. What cognitive and neural mechanisms support this skill? Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate two candidate brain systems: The multiple demand (MD) system, typically recruited during mat...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
2021
|
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/129948 |
| _version_ | 1826201420512100352 |
|---|---|
| author | Ivanova, Anna A Srikant, Shashank Sueoka, Yotaro Kean, Hope Dhamala, Riva O'Reilly, Una-May Bers, Marina U Fedorenko, Evelina G |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Ivanova, Anna A Srikant, Shashank Sueoka, Yotaro Kean, Hope Dhamala, Riva O'Reilly, Una-May Bers, Marina U Fedorenko, Evelina G |
| author_sort | Ivanova, Anna A |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Computer programming is a novel cognitive tool that has transformed modern society. What cognitive and neural mechanisms support this skill? Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate two candidate brain systems: The multiple demand (MD) system, typically recruited during math, logic, problem solving, and executive tasks, and the language system, typically recruited during linguistic processing. We examined MD and language system responses to code written in Python, a text-based programming language (Experiment 1) and in ScratchJr, a graphical programming language (Experiment 2); for both, we contrasted responses to code problems with responses to content-matched sentence problems. We found that the MD system exhibited strong bilateral responses to code in both experiments, whereas the language system responded strongly to sentence problems, but weakly or not at all to code problems. Thus, the MD system supports the use of novel cognitive tools even when the input is structurally similar to natural language. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:51:21Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/129948 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:51:21Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1299482022-09-27T22:25:41Z Comprehension of computer code relies primarily on domain-general executive brain regions Ivanova, Anna A Srikant, Shashank Sueoka, Yotaro Kean, Hope Dhamala, Riva O'Reilly, Una-May Bers, Marina U Fedorenko, Evelina G Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Computer programming is a novel cognitive tool that has transformed modern society. What cognitive and neural mechanisms support this skill? Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate two candidate brain systems: The multiple demand (MD) system, typically recruited during math, logic, problem solving, and executive tasks, and the language system, typically recruited during linguistic processing. We examined MD and language system responses to code written in Python, a text-based programming language (Experiment 1) and in ScratchJr, a graphical programming language (Experiment 2); for both, we contrasted responses to code problems with responses to content-matched sentence problems. We found that the MD system exhibited strong bilateral responses to code in both experiments, whereas the language system responded strongly to sentence problems, but weakly or not at all to code problems. Thus, the MD system supports the use of novel cognitive tools even when the input is structurally similar to natural language. National Science Foundation (Grant 1744809) 2021-02-22T16:56:16Z 2021-02-22T16:56:16Z 2020-12 2020-05 2021-02-04T18:08:52Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2050-084X https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/129948 Ivanova, Anna A et al. "Comprehension of computer code relies primarily on domain-general executive brain regions." eLife 9 (December 2020): e58906 © 2020 Ivanova et al. en http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/elife.58906 eLife Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd eLife |
| spellingShingle | Ivanova, Anna A Srikant, Shashank Sueoka, Yotaro Kean, Hope Dhamala, Riva O'Reilly, Una-May Bers, Marina U Fedorenko, Evelina G Comprehension of computer code relies primarily on domain-general executive brain regions |
| title | Comprehension of computer code relies primarily on domain-general executive brain regions |
| title_full | Comprehension of computer code relies primarily on domain-general executive brain regions |
| title_fullStr | Comprehension of computer code relies primarily on domain-general executive brain regions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Comprehension of computer code relies primarily on domain-general executive brain regions |
| title_short | Comprehension of computer code relies primarily on domain-general executive brain regions |
| title_sort | comprehension of computer code relies primarily on domain general executive brain regions |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/129948 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ivanovaannaa comprehensionofcomputercodereliesprimarilyondomaingeneralexecutivebrainregions AT srikantshashank comprehensionofcomputercodereliesprimarilyondomaingeneralexecutivebrainregions AT sueokayotaro comprehensionofcomputercodereliesprimarilyondomaingeneralexecutivebrainregions AT keanhope comprehensionofcomputercodereliesprimarilyondomaingeneralexecutivebrainregions AT dhamalariva comprehensionofcomputercodereliesprimarilyondomaingeneralexecutivebrainregions AT oreillyunamay comprehensionofcomputercodereliesprimarilyondomaingeneralexecutivebrainregions AT bersmarinau comprehensionofcomputercodereliesprimarilyondomaingeneralexecutivebrainregions AT fedorenkoevelinag comprehensionofcomputercodereliesprimarilyondomaingeneralexecutivebrainregions |