UI researchers reveal deeper workings of brain’s information hub

New study shows how the frontoparietal cortex manages information flow and directs responses

Sunday, August 16, 2026

The human brain is constantly awash with information. Even during a routine activity such as driving, the brain sorts through and reacts to multiple sources of information: Remembering the route, recalling how to operate the vehicle, and adapting to sudden obstacles such as a street closure or changing traffic.

The frontoparietal cortex is the brain's information hub, sorting through signals from across the brain, deciding what matters, and then coordinating what happens next.

In a new study, University of Iowa researchers demonstrate how the frontoparietal cortex handles uncertainty in decision-making and organizes and coordinates responses in the brain and body.

University of Iowa researchers have detailed the workings of the brain's information hub, called the frontoparietal cortex. The colored areas in this illustration show frontoparietal regions tracking uncertainty when participants encounter changes to associations they previously learned. Image courtesy of Kai Hwang lab, University of Iowa.

Through a series of experiments combining computational modeling and brain imaging, the researchers showed that the frontoparietal cortex changes how it communicates with other brain regions depending on what information is needed at each stage of a decision.

The findings may guide future research into how this exchange of information is altered in neurological and psychiatric disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and schizophrenia.

"Our study shows in more detail how the frontoparietal cortex operates - what kind of information it extracts from other systems and how it uses its connectivity pattern to integrate information that is coming in from different areas of the brain," says Kai Hwang, associate professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and the study's corresponding author. "That's the main contribution."

Neuroscientists have long known that the frontoparietal cortex plays central role in decision-making. Like an air traffic controller at a busy airport, it constantly monitors signals from other parts of the brain. But it isn't simply a repository. Instead, it sifts through those signals, discarding some and focusing on others depending on the task at hand.

In a study published in 2025, Hwang's team found that the frontoparietal cortex creates a running, high-level summary of information coming from other parts of the brain. It weighs incoming signals - some incomplete and others uncertain - distills them into a coherent picture, and then instructs other areas of the brain how to respond.

"It's like where other areas of the brain don't have all the information, so they send what they have to the frontoparietal cortex for guidance," Hwang explains.

In this new study, the team built on its previous findings by exploring the frontoparietal cortex's flexibility - how it changes its interactions with other areas of the brain depending on the problem or situation.

To do that, the researchers asked 38 participants, ages 18 to 35, to learn associations between combinations of colors, faces, and scenes with specific responses, such as pressing a button with the index or middle finger of either hand. The researchers then changed the pairings, forcing the participants to learn new associations and respond by pressing the correct button with the appropriate hand and finger.

The changed instructions created uncertainty, allowing the researchers to track how the frontoparietal cortex connected with other systems in the brain.

"If they always get it right, they know they've made the correct association, but once they start doing it wrong, they will have to guess, 'Oh, did the context change, or did I not see the color clearly?' That creates uncertainty," Hwang says.

Using data from the experiments and functional MRI scans, Hwang's team created a computational model that isolated distinct signals from different areas of the brain and showed how the frontoparietal cortex integrated them.

"Rather than simply becoming more active during difficult tasks, we observed how this network dynamically changes how it communicates with other brain regions depending on what information is needed at each stage of a decision," Hwang says.

The findings could advance research into psychiatric disorders that impair the brain's ability to adapt behavior to changing situations, such as speaking too loudly in a library or difficulty controlling impulses, as often occurs with ADHD.

"These are situations where people struggle with regulating their behavior. That, to me, is an integration problem. If that integration function is not working properly, then that could very likely mean they didn't use the right context to regulate their behavior," Hwang says.

Stephanie Leach, a sixth-year graduate student in Hwang's lab, helped design the project, led the in-person experiments, and co-led the writing of the manuscript.

"Having the opportunity to conduct this research has been especially rewarding because it has allowed me to contribute to answering questions about the most fascinating, mysterious, and complex system we know-the human brain," says Leach, who is the study's first author.

The study, "Frontoparietal hub connectivity integrates information from multiple sources," was published online July 6 in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Contributing authors include Jiefeng Jiang, who led the computational modeling, and Shannon Stokes, both in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.

The National Institute of Mental Health and the Iowa Neuroscience Institute funded the research.