scholarly journals Investigating mechanisms of cognitive control training: neural signatures of PASAT performance in depressed patients

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anja Sommer ◽  
Andreas J. Fallgatter ◽  
Christian Plewnia
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Feedback Processing ◽  
Depressed Patients ◽  
Registration Number ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Serial Addition ◽  
Neural Signatures

AbstractMajor depression disorder (MDD) is characterized by cognitive control (CC) dysfunctions associated with increased attention toward negative information. The paced auditory serial addition task (PASAT) has been used as a targeted training of CC and studies show promising effects on depressive symptoms. However, neural mechanisms underlying its efficacy are still unclear. Based on previous findings of feedback-locked event-related potentials in healthy subjects, we investigated neural signatures during PASAT performance in 46 depressed patients. We found significantly larger amplitudes after negative than positive feedback for the P300 and late positive potential (LPP). However, this difference was not significant for the feedback-related negativity (FRN). Moreover, no associations of valence-specific ERPs and PASAT performance nor depressive symptoms were found. This indicates that depressed patients seem unable to use neural activation in late feedback processing stages (P300, LPP) to adapt accordingly. Moreover, lack of valence-specific neural reaction in early feedback processing stages (FRN) might point toward emotional indifference in depressed patients.Trial registration number: NCT03518749 Date of registration: May 8, 2018.

scholarly journals Neural signatures of performance feedback in the paced auditory serial addition task (PASAT): an ERP study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anja Sommer ◽  
Lukas Ziegler ◽  
Christian Plewnia
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Negative Feedback ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Feedback Processing ◽  
Addition Task ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Serial Addition ◽  
Neural Signatures

AbstractDue to its importance for successful human behavior, research into cognitive control functioning has gained increasing interest. The paced auditory serial addition task (PASAT) has been used to test and train this fundamental function. It is a challenging task, requiring a high cognitive load in a stressful and frustrating environment. Its underlying neural mechanisms, however, are still unclear. To explore the neural signatures of the PASAT and their link to ongoing cognitive processing, feedback locked event-related potentials were derived from healthy participants during an adaptive 2-back version of the PASAT. Larger neural activation after negative feedback was found for feedback related negativity (FRN), P300 and late positive potential (LPP). In early stages of feedback processing (FRN), a larger difference between positive and negative feedback responses was associated with poorer overall performance, whereas this association was inverted for the later stages (P300 and LPP). This indicates stage-dependent associations of neural activation after negative information and cognitive functioning. Conceivably, increased early responses to negative feedback signify distraction whereas higher activity at later stages reflect cognitive control processes to preserve ongoing performance.

scholarly journals Neural Signatures of Performance Feedback in the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (PASAT): An ERP Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anja Sommer ◽  
Lukas Ecker ◽  
Christian Plewnia
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Negative Feedback ◽  
Performance Feedback ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Feedback Information ◽  
Addition Task ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Serial Addition ◽  
Neural Signatures

Research on cognitive control has sparked increasing interest in recent years, as it is an important prerequisite for goal oriented human behavior. The paced auditory serial addition task (PASAT) has been used to test and train cognitive control functions. This adaptive, challenging task includes continuous performance feedback. Therefore, additional cognitive control capacities are required to process this information along with the already high task-load. The underlying neural mechanisms, however, are still unclear. To explore the neural signatures of the PASAT and particularly the processing of distractive feedback information, feedback locked event-related potentials were derived from 24 healthy participants during an adaptive 2-back version of the PASAT. Larger neural activation after negative feedback was found for feedback related negativity (FRN), P300, and late positive potential (LPP). In early stages of feedback processing (i.e., FRN), a larger difference between positive and negative feedback responses was associated with poorer overall performance. This association was inverted in later stages (i.e., P300 and LPP). Together, our findings indicate stage-dependent associations between neural activation after negative information and cognitive functioning. Conceivably, increased early responses to negative feedback signify distraction, whereas higher activity at later stages reflects cognitive control processes to preserve ongoing performance.

scholarly journals Depressive rumination is correlated with brain responses during self-related processing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tzu-Yu Hsu ◽  
Tzu-Ling Liu ◽  
Paul Z. Cheng ◽  
Hsin-Chien Lee ◽  
Timothy J. Lane ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Unipolar Depression ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
Late Event ◽  
Oscillatory Power ◽  
Related Aspect ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Central Symptom

AbstractBackgroundRumination, a tendency to focus on negative self-related thoughts, is a central symptom of depression. Studying the self-related aspect of such symptoms is challenging due to the need to distinguish self effects per se from the emotional content of task stimuli. This study employs an emotionally neutral self-related paradigm to investigate possible altered self processing in depression and its link to rumination.MethodsPeople with unipolar depression (MDD; n = 25) and controls (n = 25) underwent task-based EEG recording. Late event-related potentials were studied along with low frequency oscillatory power. EEG metrics were compared between groups and correlated with depressive symptoms and reported rumination.ResultsThe MDD group displayed a difference in late potentials across fronto-central electrodes between self-related and non-self-related conditions. No such difference was seen in controls. The magnitude of this difference was positively related with depressive symptoms and reported rumination. MDD also had elevated theta oscillation power at central electrodes in self-related conditions, which was not seen in controls.ConclusionsRumination appears linked to altered self-related processing in depression, independently of stimuli-related emotional confounds. This connection between self-related processing and depression may point to self-disorder being a core component of the condition.

scholarly journals Attending to Eliza: rapid brain responses reflect competence attribution in virtual social feedback processing

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 1073-1086 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Schindler ◽  
Gregory A Miller ◽  
Johanna Kissler
Keyword(s):  
Online Communication ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Linear Increase ◽  
Source Analysis ◽  
Social Feedback ◽  
Feedback Processing ◽  
Early Posterior Negativity ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Content Processing ◽  
Socially Motivated

Abstract In the age of virtual communication, the source of a message is often inferred rather than perceived, raising the question of how sender attributions affect content processing. We investigated this issue in an evaluative feedback scenario. Participants were told that an expert psychotherapist, a layperson or a randomly acting computer was going to give them online positive, neutral or negative personality feedback while high-density EEG was recorded. Sender attribution affected processing rapidly, even though the feedback was on average identical. Event-related potentials revealed a linear increase with attributed expertise beginning 150 ms after disclosure and most pronounced for N1, P2 and early posterior negativity components. P3 and late positive potential amplitudes were increased for both human senders and for emotionally significant (positive or negative) feedback. Strikingly, feedback from a putative expert prompted large P3 responses, even for inherently neutral content. Source analysis localized early enhancements due to attributed sender expertise in frontal and somatosensory regions and later responses in the posterior cingulate and extended visual and parietal areas, supporting involvement of mentalizing, embodied processing and socially motivated attention. These findings reveal how attributed sender expertise rapidly alters feedback processing in virtual interaction and have implications for virtual therapy and online communication.

scholarly journals Neural correlates of negative expectancy and impaired social feedback processing in social anxiety

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruolei Gu ◽  
Xiang Ao ◽  
Licheng Mo ◽  
Dandan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Social Acceptance ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Social Feedback ◽  
Feedback Processing ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
High Social Anxiety

Abstract Social anxiety has been associated with abnormalities in cognitive processing in the literature, manifesting as various cognitive biases. To what extent these biases interrupt social interactions remains largely unclear. This study used the Social Judgment Paradigm that could separate the expectation and experience stages of social feedback processing. Event-related potentials (ERPs) in these two stages were recorded to detect the effect of social anxiety that might not be reflected by behavioral data. Participants were divided into two groups according to their social anxiety level. Participants in the high social anxiety (HSA) group were more likely to predict that they would be socially rejected by peers than did their low social anxiety (LSA) counterparts (i.e. the control group). Compared to the ERP data of the LSA group, the HSA group showed: (a) a larger P1 component to social cues (peer faces) prior to social feedback presentation, possibly indicating an attention bias; (b) a difference in feedback-related negativity amplitude between unexpected social acceptance and unexpected social rejection, possibly indicating an expectancy bias; and (c) a diminished sensitivity of the P3 amplitude to social feedback valence (be accepted/be rejected), possibly indicating an experience bias. These results could help understand the cognitive mechanisms that comprise and maintain social anxiety.

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