Locating the Neural Correlates of the Problem State Resource: Analyzing fMRI Data on the Basis of a Computational Model

Multitasking often has to be investigated with experiments using complex tasks. An example is our research on the ‘bottleneck’ role of the problem state resource (Borst, Taatgen, & Van Rijn, 2010). The problem state resource is the part of working memory that is used to store intermediate results. Previously, we have shown that its capacity is limited to one element. Because we were interested in finding the neural correlates of the problem state resource, and fMRI data of complex tasks are difficult to analyze with classical analysis methods, we developed a novel, computational-model-based fMRI analysis method. We show that this method can be used to analyze complex tasks by locating the brain area responsible for maintaining problem states: the inferior parietal lobule.