SynthesisBrain structure & function2019
Common and distinct neural correlates of dual-tasking and task-switching: a meta-analytic review and a neuro-cognitive processing model of human multitasking.
Synthesis in Brain structure & function, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 61 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
61 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 124 citations in OpenAlex.
- The role of cue transparency in task switching: an SDM-PSI meta-analysis in healthy adults.Brain imaging and behavior · 2026Pooled it
- Not All Stroop-Type Tasks Are Alike: Assessing the Impact of Stimulus Material, Task Design, and Cognitive Demand via Meta-analyses Across Neuroimaging Studies.Neuropsychology review · 2025Pooled it
- Mapping common and distinct brain correlates among cognitive flexibility tasks: concordant evidence from meta-analyses.Brain imaging and behavior · 2025Pooled it
- The effect of task complexity on the neural network for response inhibition: An ALE meta-analysis.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Cognition, body, and mind: A three-in-one coordinate-based fMRI meta-analysis on cognitive, physical, and meditative trainings.Human brain mapping · 2023Pooled it
- Accurate localization and coactivation profiles of the frontal eye field and inferior frontal junction: an ALE and MACM fMRI meta-analysis.Brain structure & function · 2023Pooled it
- The Aging Brain and Executive Functions Revisited: Implications from Meta-analytic and Functional-Connectivity Evidence.Journal of cognitive neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- Meta-analytic evidence for a joint neural mechanism underlying response inhibition and state anger.Human brain mapping · 2020Pooled it
- Changes in concentration performance and alternating attention after short-term virtual reality training in E-athletes: a pilot study.Scientific reports · 2024Trial
- Dual task measures in older adults with and without cognitive impairment: response to simultaneous cognitive-exercise training and minimal clinically important difference estimates.BMC geriatrics · 2023Trial
- Turning as a single and dual task-associations with Alzheimer's and vascular pathologies in cognitively healthy older people.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2026Article
- Acute effects of upper-limb blood flow restriction training on dual-task postural control and physiological correlates in older adults.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Exploring gait automaticity and prefrontal brain activity during single and dual-task walking in aging and Parkinson's disease.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Dissociating Task Selection and Response Selection in Dual-Task Contexts: Evidence from a Novel Trial-by-Trial Analysis of Temporal Overlap between Tasks.Journal of cognition · 2026Article
- Randomness as a behavioral marker of attentional control during the attention training technique and its neural correlates.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Differential role of beta band activity in a dual-task working memory paradigm under internally vs. externally directed cognition.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Article
- Inhibition/excitation balance is associated with functional connectivity during cognitive flexibility performance.Brain communications · 2026Article
- Network Neuroscience of Human Multitasking: Local Connections Matter.Human brain mapping · 2025Article
- Reciprocal Predictions Between Reading Achievement and Cognitive Flexibility Development in Children and the Mediating Roles of the Left Middle Frontal Gyrus.Human brain mapping · 2025Article
- Cognitive decline limits compensatory resource allocation within the aged swallowing network.GeroScience · 2025Article
1 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Although there are well-known limitations of the human cognitive system in performing two tasks simultaneously (dual-tasking) or alternatingly (task-switching), the question for a common vs. distinct neural basis of these multitasking limitations is still open. We performed two Activation Likelihood Estimation meta-analyses of neuroimaging studies on dual-tasking or task-switching and tested for commonalities and differences in the brain regions associated with either domain. We found a common core network related to multitasking comprising bilateral intraparietal sulcus (IPS), left dorsal premotor cortex (dPMC), and right anterior insula. Meta-analytic contrasts revealed eight fronto-parietal clusters more consistently activated in dual-tasking (bilateral frontal operculum, dPMC, and anterior IPS, left inferior frontal sulcus and left inferior frontal gyrus) and, conversely, four clusters (left inferior frontal junction, posterior IPS, and precuneus as well as frontomedial cortex) more consistently activated in task-switching. Together with sub-analyses of preparation effects in task-switching, our results argue against purely passive structural processing limitations in multitasking. Based on these findings and drawing on current theorizing, we present a neuro-cognitive processing model of multitasking.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.