Alertness in young healthy subjects: An fMRI study of brain region interactivity enhanced by a warning signal

An effective connectivity study was carried out on 16 young, healthy subjects performing an alertness task. The objective of this study was to develop and to evaluate a putative network model of alertness by adapting structural equation modeling to fMRI data. This study was designed to evaluate the directed interactivity of an attentional network during intrinsic and phasic alerting tasks. On the basis of theoretical hypotheses, clinical observations, behavioral data and neuroimaging studies, it was hypothesized that neural circuits in the right hemisphere including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), anterior cingulate cortex, inferior parietal cortex and the thalamus were involved. The results of this study support the existence of a common network of activated areas with significant path coefficient differences between intrinsic and phasic alertness. Functional interactivity was significantly reinforced during the phasic alertness task and appeared to preferentially involve activity in the DLPFC region, whereas the path coefficients of the model were well-balanced during intrinsic alertness. This study highlights the predominant role of the DLPFC region in maintenance of a state of alertness and in temporal preparation during an alertness task.