Conflict adaptation within but not across NoGo decision criteria: Event-related-potential evidence of specificity in the contextual modulation of cognitive control

We examined adaptation to frequent conflict in a flanker task using event-related potentials (ERPs). A prominent model of cognitive control suggests the fronto-central N2 as an indicator of conflict monitoring. Based on this model we predicted (1) an increased N2 amplitude for incompatible compared to compatible stimuli and (2) that this difference in N2 amplitude would be less pronounced under conditions of frequent conflict (high cognitive control). In this model, adaptation to frequent conflict is implemented as modulation of early visual processing. Traditionally, variations in processing selectivity in the flanker task have been related to a zoom lens model of visual attention. Therefore, we further predicted (3) effects of conflict frequency on early visual ERP components of the event-related potential, and (4) generalization of conflict adaptation due to increased conflict frequency in the flanker task to other visuospatial tasks, intermixed within flanker task trials. Frequent conflict was associated with reduced flanker interference in response times (RTs) and error rate. Consistent with the literature, amplitude of the fronto-central N2 was larger and latency of the central P3 longer for incompatible stimuli. Both effects were smaller when conflict was frequent, supporting the notion of fronto-central N2 as indicator of conflict monitoring. Neither amplitude nor latency of the posterior P1, as index of early visual processing, was modulated by conflict frequency. Additionally, conflict frequency in the flanker task did not affect the pattern of RTs in a probe task. In sum, our results suggest that conflict adaptation operates in a task-specific manner and does not necessarily alter early information processing, that is, the spatial focus of visual attention.

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The impact of exercise intensity on neurophysiological indices of food-related inhibitory control and cognitive control: A randomized crossover event-related potential (ERP) study

NeuroImage ◽

10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118162 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 118162

Author(s):

Bruce W. Bailey ◽

Alexandra M. Muir ◽

Ciera L. Bartholomew ◽

William F. Christensen ◽

Kaylie A. Carbine ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Control ◽

Inhibitory Control ◽

Exercise Intensity ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Crossover Event ◽

The Impact

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Right Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex Mediates Individual Differences in Conflict-driven Cognitive Control

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_00064 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 23 (12) ◽

pp. 3903-3913 ◽

Cited By ~ 45

Author(s):

Tobias Egner

Keyword(s):

Conflict Resolution ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Cognitive Control ◽

Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Group Analysis ◽

Individual Variability ◽

Primary Role ◽

Conflict Adaptation ◽

Traditional Group ◽

Behavioral Expression

Conflict adaptation—a conflict-triggered improvement in the resolution of conflicting stimulus or response representations—has become a widely used probe of cognitive control processes in both healthy and clinical populations. Previous fMRI studies have localized activation foci associated with conflict resolution to dorsolateral PFC (dlPFC). The traditional group analysis approach employed in these studies highlights regions that are, on average, activated during conflict resolution, but does not necessarily reveal areas mediating individual differences in conflict resolution, because between-subject variance is treated as noise. Here, we employed a complementary approach to elucidate the neural bases of variability in the proficiency of conflict-driven cognitive control. We analyzed two independent fMRI data sets of face–word Stroop tasks by using individual variability in the behavioral expression of conflict adaptation as the metric against which brain activation was regressed while controlling for individual differences in mean RT and Stroop interference. Across the two experiments, a replicable neural substrate of individual variation in conflict adaptation was found in ventrolateral PFC (vlPFC), specifically, in the right inferior frontal gyrus, pars orbitalis (BA 47). Unbiased regression estimates showed that variability in activity in this region accounted for ∼40% of the variance in behavioral expression of conflict adaptation across subjects, thus documenting a heretofore unsuspected key role for vlPFC in mediating conflict-driven adjustments in cognitive control. We speculate that vlPFC plays a primary role in conflict control that is supplemented by dlPFC recruitment under conditions of suboptimal performance.

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Temporal correlates of intuition and cognitive control in moral decision, making in different social contexts

European Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/j.eurpsy.2016.01.229 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 33 (S1) ◽

pp. S140-S140

Author(s):

F. Keshvari ◽

Z. Rezvani ◽

F. Ghassemi ◽

H. Pouretemad

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Cognitive Control ◽

Right Hemisphere ◽

Moral Dilemmas ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Repeated Measure ◽

Social Response ◽

Moral Decision ◽

Moral Decision Making ◽

High Conflict

In the stream of flurry of publications grappling different paradigms to tackle underlying mechanisms of moral decision-making, EVENT RELATED POTENtial (ERP) studies is beginning to explore psychophysiological components in the moral domain, focused on observing various moral behaviors in the experimental situations. This research was aimed at providing a new method of study investigating neural correlates of subjective moral decision-making in which we hypothesize that the social congruent or in-congruent context, could emerge a salience brain response in intuitive or cognitive control related responses toward moral dilemmas. Electrophysiological data were recorded from the scalp a 32-channel recording system complying with the international 10–20 system. The average N2 (175–300 ms) and LPP (300–600 ms) amplitude and latency were measured after the onset of putative counterpart response. Repeated measure ANOVA revealed that there was a difference between congruent versus in-congruent social response to high conflict scenarios in LPP amplitude in right lateral and frontal electrodes F(4, 174) = 5.812, P < 0.001 (Fig. 1). The findings also, suggest that N2 latency in less conflict moral scenarios may appear earlier compared with high conflict moral scenarios during in congruent social response in frontal electrodes especially left area F(3, 174) = 3.013, P < 0.05 (Fig. 2, figures are not available for this abstract). In conclusion, these results were either extend previous neurophysiological findings on classic moral scenarios and consistent with the notion that right hemisphere would be much more representative of cognitive control process during high conflict moral decision-making, while left frontal electrodes engaged in early intuitive process.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

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Cognitive Control Deficits in Alcohol Dependence Are a Trait- and State-Dependent Biomarker: An ERP Study

Frontiers in Psychiatry ◽

10.3389/fpsyt.2020.606891 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 ◽

Author(s):

Xiaohong Liu ◽

Hongliang Zhou ◽

Chenguang Jiang ◽

Yanling Xue ◽

Zhenhe Zhou ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Control ◽

Alcohol Dependence ◽

Control Function ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Oddball Paradigm ◽

Group Level ◽

Auditory Oddball ◽

State Dependent ◽

Simple Effect ◽

Time Point

Alcohol dependence (AD) presents cognitive control deficits. Event-related potential (ERP) P300 reflects cognitive control-related processing. The aim of this study was to investigate whether cognitive control deficits are a trait biomarker or a state biomarker in AD. Participants included 30 AD patients and 30 healthy controls (HCs). All participants were measured with P300 evoked by a three-stimulus auditory oddball paradigm at a normal state (time 1, i.e., just after the last alcohol intake) and abstinence (time 2, i.e., just after a 4-week abstinence). The results showed that for P3a and P3b amplitude, the interaction effect for group × time point was significant, the simple effect for group at time 1 level and time 2 level was significant, and the simple effect for time point at AD group level was significant; however, the simple effect for time point at HC group level was not significant. Above results indicated that compared to HCs, AD patients present reductions of P3a/3b amplitude, and after 4-week alcohol abstinence, although P3a/3b amplitudes were improved, they were still lower than those of HCs. For P3a and P3b latencies, no significant differences were observed. These findings conclude that AD patients present cognitive control deficits that are reflected by P3a/3b and that cognitive control deficits in AD are trait- and state-dependent. The implication of these findings is helpful to understand the psychological and neural processes for AD, and these findings suggest that improving the cognitive control function may impact the treatment effect for AD.

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Cognitive control and conflict adaptation in youth with high-functioning autism

Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry ◽

10.1111/j.1469-7610.2011.02498.x ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 53 (4) ◽

pp. 440-448 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Michael J. Larson ◽

Mikle South ◽

Peter E. Clayson ◽

Ann Clawson

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Control ◽

High Functioning Autism ◽

Conflict Adaptation ◽

High Functioning

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Fractionating the Cognitive Control Required to Bring About a Change in Task: A Dense-sensor Event-related Potential Study

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2008.20015 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 20 (2) ◽

pp. 255-267 ◽

Cited By ~ 34

Author(s):

Duncan E. Astle ◽

G. M. Jackson ◽

R. Swainson

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Control ◽

Task Switching ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Overt Response ◽

Control Functions ◽

Basic Task ◽

Physical Response ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Covert Response

The ability to change our behavior is one that we frequently exert, although determining the mechanisms by which we do so is far from trivial. Task switching is a useful experimental paradigm for studying cognitive control functions. Switching between tasks is associated with a decrement in performance, or “switch-cost,” relative to repeating the same task. We have previously demonstrated that this cost is dependent on switching from performing one task to performing another; changing only our intended performance does not elicit the same performance deficit. Using event-related potentials (ERPs), we dissociated two electrophysiological indices mirroring this behavioral distinction [Astle, D. E., Jackson, G. M., & Swainson, R. Dissociating neural indices of dynamic cognitive control in advance task-set preparation: An ERP study of task switching. Brain Res, 1125, 94–103, 2006]. However, what was unclear were the specific aspects of performance that were critical for triggering the neural mechanisms associated specifically with switching from a previously performed task. Two candidate aspects were: (i) that performance required a physical response and (ii) that the two tasks shared their responses (they had bivalent response mappings). The present study therefore compared three separate groups to explore the effects of these different aspects of performance. Each group completed the same basic task-switching paradigm, but with either an overt response or covert response, and either switching between tasks that shared their responses (bivalent response mappings) or had separate responses (univalent response mappings). When comparing precue-locked ERPs, we observed three separable components: one common to all three groups, one which primarily dissociated overt from covert responding, and one which primarily dissociated bivalent from univalent responding. We therefore concluded that changing our behavior engages at least three dissociable mechanisms. Interestingly, in the overt conditions, residual switch-costs were absent; in addition, therefore, we concluded that it is possible to engage cognitive control in advance, such that the new behavior is as efficient as were the subject to have repeated the old behavior.

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