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Software Bug Detection Causes a Shift From Bottom-Up to Top-Down Effective Connectivity Involving the Insula Within the Error-Monitoring Network

The neural correlates of software programming skills have been the target of an increasing number of studies in the past few years. Those studies focused on error-monitoring during software code inspection. Others have studied task-related cognitive load as measured by distinct neurophysiological me...

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Autores principales: Castelhano, Joao, Duarte, Isabel C., Couceiro, Ricardo, Medeiros, Julio, Duraes, Joao, Afonso, Sónia, Madeira, Henrique, Castelo-Branco, Miguel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8935015/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35321263
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2022.788272
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author Castelhano, Joao
Duarte, Isabel C.
Couceiro, Ricardo
Medeiros, Julio
Duraes, Joao
Afonso, Sónia
Madeira, Henrique
Castelo-Branco, Miguel
author_facet Castelhano, Joao
Duarte, Isabel C.
Couceiro, Ricardo
Medeiros, Julio
Duraes, Joao
Afonso, Sónia
Madeira, Henrique
Castelo-Branco, Miguel
author_sort Castelhano, Joao
collection PubMed
description The neural correlates of software programming skills have been the target of an increasing number of studies in the past few years. Those studies focused on error-monitoring during software code inspection. Others have studied task-related cognitive load as measured by distinct neurophysiological measures. Most studies addressed only syntax errors (shallow level of code monitoring). However, a recent functional MRI (fMRI) study suggested a pivotal role of the insula during error-monitoring when challenging deep-level analysis of code inspection was required. This raised the hypothesis that the insula is causally involved in deep error-monitoring. To confirm this hypothesis, we carried out a new fMRI study where participants performed a deep source-code comprehension task that included error-monitoring to detect bugs in the code. The generality of our paradigm was enhanced by comparison with a variety of tasks related to text reading and bugless source-code understanding. Healthy adult programmers (N = 21) participated in this 3T fMRI experiment. The activation maps evoked by error-related events confirmed significant activations in the insula [p(Bonferroni) < 0.05]. Importantly, a posterior-to-anterior causality shift was observed concerning the role of the insula: in the absence of error, causal directions were mainly bottom-up, whereas, in their presence, the strong causal top-down effects from frontal regions, in particular, the anterior cingulate cortex was observed.
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spelling pubmed-89350152022-03-22 Software Bug Detection Causes a Shift From Bottom-Up to Top-Down Effective Connectivity Involving the Insula Within the Error-Monitoring Network Castelhano, Joao Duarte, Isabel C. Couceiro, Ricardo Medeiros, Julio Duraes, Joao Afonso, Sónia Madeira, Henrique Castelo-Branco, Miguel Front Hum Neurosci Neuroscience The neural correlates of software programming skills have been the target of an increasing number of studies in the past few years. Those studies focused on error-monitoring during software code inspection. Others have studied task-related cognitive load as measured by distinct neurophysiological measures. Most studies addressed only syntax errors (shallow level of code monitoring). However, a recent functional MRI (fMRI) study suggested a pivotal role of the insula during error-monitoring when challenging deep-level analysis of code inspection was required. This raised the hypothesis that the insula is causally involved in deep error-monitoring. To confirm this hypothesis, we carried out a new fMRI study where participants performed a deep source-code comprehension task that included error-monitoring to detect bugs in the code. The generality of our paradigm was enhanced by comparison with a variety of tasks related to text reading and bugless source-code understanding. Healthy adult programmers (N = 21) participated in this 3T fMRI experiment. The activation maps evoked by error-related events confirmed significant activations in the insula [p(Bonferroni) < 0.05]. Importantly, a posterior-to-anterior causality shift was observed concerning the role of the insula: in the absence of error, causal directions were mainly bottom-up, whereas, in their presence, the strong causal top-down effects from frontal regions, in particular, the anterior cingulate cortex was observed. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-03-07 /pmc/articles/PMC8935015/ /pubmed/35321263 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2022.788272 Text en Copyright © 2022 Castelhano, Duarte, Couceiro, Medeiros, Duraes, Afonso, Madeira and Castelo-Branco. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Castelhano, Joao
Duarte, Isabel C.
Couceiro, Ricardo
Medeiros, Julio
Duraes, Joao
Afonso, Sónia
Madeira, Henrique
Castelo-Branco, Miguel
Software Bug Detection Causes a Shift From Bottom-Up to Top-Down Effective Connectivity Involving the Insula Within the Error-Monitoring Network
title Software Bug Detection Causes a Shift From Bottom-Up to Top-Down Effective Connectivity Involving the Insula Within the Error-Monitoring Network
title_full Software Bug Detection Causes a Shift From Bottom-Up to Top-Down Effective Connectivity Involving the Insula Within the Error-Monitoring Network
title_fullStr Software Bug Detection Causes a Shift From Bottom-Up to Top-Down Effective Connectivity Involving the Insula Within the Error-Monitoring Network
title_full_unstemmed Software Bug Detection Causes a Shift From Bottom-Up to Top-Down Effective Connectivity Involving the Insula Within the Error-Monitoring Network
title_short Software Bug Detection Causes a Shift From Bottom-Up to Top-Down Effective Connectivity Involving the Insula Within the Error-Monitoring Network
title_sort software bug detection causes a shift from bottom-up to top-down effective connectivity involving the insula within the error-monitoring network
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8935015/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35321263
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2022.788272
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