scholarly journals Biologically constrained action selection improves cognitive control in a model of the Stroop task

2007 ◽  
Vol 362 (1485) ◽  
pp. 1671-1684 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Stafford ◽  
Kevin N Gurney
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Diffusion Model ◽  
Stroop Task ◽  
Response Selection ◽  
Action Selection ◽  
Selection Mechanism ◽  
Choice Behaviour ◽  
Adaptive Action ◽  
Final Response ◽  
Constrained Solutions

The Stroop task is a paradigmatic psychological task for investigating stimulus conflict and the effect this has on response selection. The model of Cohen et al. (Cohen et al . 1990 Psychol. Rev. 97 , 332–361) has hitherto provided the best account of performance in the Stroop task, but there remains certain key data that it fails to match. We show that this failure is due to the mechanism used to perform final response selection—one based on the diffusion model of choice behaviour (Ratcliff 1978 Psychol. Rev. 85 , 59–108). We adapt the model to use a selection mechanism which is based on the putative human locus of final response selection, the basal ganglia/thalamo-cortical complex (Redgrave et al. 1999 Neuroscience 89 , 1009–1023). This improves the match to the core human data and, additionally, makes it possible for the model to accommodate, in a principled way, additional mechanisms of cognitive control that enable better fits to the data. This work prompts a critique of the diffusion model as a mechanism of response selection, and the features that any response mechanism must possess to provide adaptive action selection. We conclude that the consideration of biologically constrained solutions to the action selection problem is vital to the understanding and improvement of cognitive models of response selection.

Conflict-Specific Effects of Accessory Stimuli on Cognitive Control in the Stroop Task and the Simon Task

2013 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Soutschek ◽  
Hermann J. Müller ◽  
Torsten Schubert
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Stroop Task ◽  
Response Selection ◽  
Simon Task ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Relevant Stimulus ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Task Irrelevant

Both the Stroop and the Simon paradigms are often used in research on cognitive control, however, there is evidence that dissociable control processes are involved in these tasks: While conflicts in the Stroop task may be resolved mainly by enhanced task-relevant stimulus processing, conflicts in the Simon task may be resolved rather by suppressing the influence of task-irrelevant information on response selection. In the present study, we show that these control mechanisms interact in different ways with the presentation of accessory stimuli. Accessory stimuli do not affect cognitive control in the Simon task, but they impair the efficiency of cross-trial control processes in the Stroop task. Our findings underline the importance of differentiating between different types of conflicts and mechanisms of cognitive control.

scholarly journals Visual Information Shapes the Dynamics of Corticobasal Ganglia Pathways during Response Selection and Inhibition

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (7) ◽  
pp. 1344-1359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Jahfari ◽  
Lourens Waldorp ◽  
K. Richard Ridderinkhof ◽  
H. Steven Scholte
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Response Selection ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Effective Connectivity ◽  
Action Selection ◽  
Visual Input ◽  
Fmri Data ◽  
Response Strategies ◽  
Fast Flow

Action selection often requires the transformation of visual information into motor plans. Preventing premature responses may entail the suppression of visual input and/or of prepared muscle activity. This study examined how the quality of visual information affects frontobasal ganglia (BG) routes associated with response selection and inhibition. Human fMRI data were collected from a stop task with visually degraded or intact face stimuli. During go trials, degraded spatial frequency information reduced the speed of information accumulation and response cautiousness. Effective connectivity analysis of the fMRI data showed action selection to emerge through the classic direct and indirect BG pathways, with inputs deriving form both prefrontal and visual regions. When stimuli were degraded, visual and prefrontal regions processing the stimulus information increased connectivity strengths toward BG, whereas regions evaluating visual scene content or response strategies reduced connectivity toward BG. Response inhibition during stop trials recruited the indirect and hyperdirect BG pathways, with input from visual and prefrontal regions. Importantly, when stimuli were nondegraded and processed fast, the optimal stop model contained additional connections from prefrontal to visual cortex. Individual differences analysis revealed that stronger prefrontal-to-visual connectivity covaried with faster inhibition times. Therefore, prefrontal-to-visual cortex connections appear to suppress the fast flow of visual input for the go task, such that the inhibition process can finish before the selection process. These results indicate response selection and inhibition within the BG to emerge through the interplay of top–down adjustments from prefrontal and bottom–up input from sensory cortex.

scholarly journals STATE MACHINE MODEL OF HYPOTHESIZED VOLUNTARY ACTION SELECTION MECHANISM OF SUBSTANTIA NIGRA PARS COMPACTA AND LOCUS COERULEUS

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Rourk
Keyword(s):  
Electron Transport ◽  
Substantia Nigra ◽  
Action Selection ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
State Machine ◽  
Voluntary Action ◽  
Substantia Nigra Pars Compacta ◽  
Selection Mechanism ◽  
Machine Model ◽  
Apparent Ability

A hypothesized voluntary action selection mechanism for the SNc and LC has been proposed that is based on the apparent ability of ferritin and neuromelanin to support electron transport in those tissues. (Rourk 2018; Rourk 2019). A state machine model is presented in this paper that provides an explanation for neural correlates of that hypothesized voluntary action selection mechanism to the human experience of consciousness.

scholarly journals Alcohol Hangover Slightly Impairs Response Selection but not Response Inhibition

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 1317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antje Opitz ◽  
Jan Hubert ◽  
Christian Beste ◽  
Ann-Kathrin Stock
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Response Inhibition ◽  
Response Selection ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Alcohol Intoxication ◽  
Heavy Drinking ◽  
High Dose ◽  
Automatic Response ◽  
Alcoholic Drinks ◽  
Alcohol Hangover

Alcohol hangover commonly occurs after an episode of heavy drinking. It has previously been demonstrated that acute high-dose alcohol intoxication reduces cognitive control, while automatic processes remain comparatively unaffected. However, it has remained unclear whether alcohol hangover, as a consequence of binge drinking, modulates the interplay between cognitive control and automaticity in a comparable way. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of alcohol hangover on controlled versus automatic response selection and inhibition. N = 34 healthy young men completed a Simon Nogo task, once sober and once hungover. Hangover symptoms were experimentally induced by a standardized administration of alcoholic drinks (with high congener content) on the night before the hangover appointment. We found no significant hangover effects, which suggests that alcohol hangover did not produce the same functional deficits as an acute high-dose intoxication. Yet still, add-on Bayesian analyses revealed that hangover slightly impaired response selection, but not response inhibition. This pattern of effects cannot be explained with the current knowledge on how ethanol and its metabolite acetaldehyde may modulate response selection and inhibition via the dopaminergic or GABAergic system.

scholarly journals Modulation of Conflict Processing by Theta-Range tACS over the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Lehr ◽  
Niklas Henneberg ◽  
Tarana Nigam ◽  
Walter Paulus ◽  
Andrea Antal
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Stroop Task ◽  
Stroop Effect ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Control Network ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Cognitive Control Network ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation

Behavioral response conflict arises in the color-word Stroop task and triggers the cognitive control network. Midfrontal theta-band oscillations correlate with adaptive control mechanisms during and after conflict resolution. In order to prove causality, in two experiments, we applied transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) at 6 Hz to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during Stroop task performance. Sham stimulation served as a control in both experiments; 9.7 Hz tACS served as a nonharmonic alpha band control in the second experiment. We employed generalized linear mixed models for analysis of behavioral data. Accuracy remained unchanged by any type of active stimulation. Over both experiments, the Stroop effect (response time difference between congruent and incongruent trials) was reduced by 6 Hz stimulation as compared to sham, mainly in trials without prior conflict adaptation. Alpha tACS did not modify the Stroop effect. Theta tACS can both reduce the Stroop effect and modulate adaptive mechanisms of the cognitive control network, suggesting midfrontal theta oscillations as causally involved in cognitive control.

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