Design issues and solutions for stop-signal data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development [ABCD] study

AbstractThe Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study is an unprecedented longitudinal neuroimaging sample that tracks the brain development of over 10,000 9-10 year olds through adolescence. At the core of this study are the three tasks that are completed repeatedly within the fMRI scanner, one of which is the stop-signal task. In analyzing the available stopping experimental code and data, we identified a set of design issues that we believe significantly limit its value. These issues include but are not limited to: variable stimulus durations that violate basic assumptions of dominant stopping models, trials in which stimuli are incorrectly not presented, and faulty stop-signal delays. We present eight issues, show their effect on the existing ABCD data, suggest prospective solutions to the study organizers including task changes for future data collection, and suggest retrospective solutions for data users who wish to make the most of the existing data.

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Design issues and solutions for stop-signal data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study

eLife ◽

10.7554/elife.60185 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 ◽

Author(s):

Patrick G Bissett ◽

McKenzie P Hagen ◽

Henry M Jones ◽

Russell A Poldrack

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Development ◽

Computational Models ◽

Stop Signal ◽

Stop Signal Task ◽

Design Issues ◽

Variable Stimulus ◽

The Core ◽

Basic Assumptions ◽

Future Data ◽

The Brain

The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study is an unprecedented longitudinal neuroimaging sample that tracks the brain development of over 9–10 year olds through adolescence. At the core of this study are the three tasks that are completed repeatedly within the MRI scanner, one of which is the stop-signal task. In analyzing the available stopping experimental code and data, we identified a set of design issues that we believe significantly compromise its value. These issues include but are not limited to variable stimulus durations that violate basic assumptions of dominant stopping models, trials in which stimuli are incorrectly not presented, and faulty stop-signal delays. We present eight issues, show their effect on the existing ABCD data, suggest prospective solutions including task changes for future data collection and preliminary computational models, and suggest retrospective solutions for data users who wish to make the most of the existing data.

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A New Agenda for Cognitive Development

Emerging Minds ◽

10.1093/oso/9780195077872.003.0011 ◽

1996 ◽

Author(s):

Robert S. Siegler

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Development ◽

Empirical Evidence ◽

Empirical Data ◽

Change Process ◽

Current Practice ◽

The Core ◽

Initial Decision ◽

Basic Assumptions ◽

Children’S Thinking ◽

The Way

My goal in writing this book is to change the agenda of the field of cognitive development. In particular, I want to promote greater attention to the question that I believe is inherently at the core of the field: How do changes in children’s thinking occur? Focusing on change may not sound like a radical departure from current practice, but I believe it is. It will require reformulation of our basic assumptions about children’s thinking, the kinds of questions we ask about it, our methods for studying it, the mechanisms we propose to explain it, and the basic metaphors that underlie our thinking about it. That modifications of all of these types are being proposed as a package is no accident. Just as existing approaches have directed our attention away from the change process, so may new ones lead us to focus squarely on it. This concluding chapter summarizes the kinds of changes in assumptions, questions, methods, mechanisms, and metaphors that I think are needed. My initial decision to write this book was motivated by a growing discomfort with the large gap between the inherent mission of the field—to understand changes in children’s thinking—and most of what we actually have been studying. As I thought about the problem, I came to the conclusion that existing assumptions, methods, and theories acted in a mutually supportive way to make what we typically do seem essential, and to make doing otherwise—that is, studying change directly—seem impossible. Even approaches that proclaimed themselves to be radical departures from traditional theories maintained many fundamental assumptions of those theories. An increasing body of empirical evidence, however, indicates that some of the assumptions are wrong and that the way in which they are wrong has led us to ignore fundamental aspects of development. In this section, I describe prevailing assumptions regarding variability, choice, and change, and propose alternatives that seem more consistent with empirical data and more useful for increasing our understanding of how changes occur.

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Stop signals delay synchrony more for finger tapping than vocalization: a dual modality study of rhythmic synchronization in the stop signal task

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.5242 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

pp. e5242 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Leidy J. Castro-Meneses ◽

Paul F. Sowman

Keyword(s):

Response Times ◽

Sensory Modality ◽

Sensory Information ◽

Reaction Times ◽

Proactive Inhibition ◽

Stop Signal ◽

Finger Tapping ◽

Stop Signal Task ◽

Auditory Modality ◽

The Brain

Background A robust feature of sensorimotor synchronization (SMS) performance in finger tapping to an auditory pacing signal is the negative asynchrony of the tap with respect to the pacing signal. The Paillard–Fraisse hypothesis suggests that negative asynchrony is a result of inter-modal integration, in which the brain compares sensory information across two modalities (auditory and tactile). The current study compared the asynchronies of vocalizations and finger tapping in time to an auditory pacing signal. Our first hypothesis was that vocalizations have less negative asynchrony compared to finger tapping due to the requirement for sensory integration within only a single (auditory) modality (intra-modal integration). However, due to the different measurements for vocalizations and finger responses, interpreting the comparison between these two response modalities is problematic. To address this problem, we included stop signals in the synchronization task. The rationale for this manipulation was that stop signals would perturb synchronization more in the inter-modal compared to the intra-modal task. We hypothesized that the inclusion of stop signals induce proactive inhibition, which reduces negative asynchrony. We further hypothesized that any reduction in negative asynchrony occurs to a lesser degree for vocalization than for finger tapping. Method A total of 30 participants took part in this study. We compared SMS in a single sensory modality (vocalizations (or auditory) to auditory pacing signal) to a dual sensory modality (fingers (or tactile) to auditory pacing signal). The task was combined with a stop signal task in which stop signals were relevant in some blocks and irrelevant in others. Response-to-pacing signal asynchronies and stop signal reaction times were compared across modalities and across the two types of stop signal blocks. Results In the blocks where stopping was irrelevant, we found that vocalization (−61.47 ms) was more synchronous with the auditory pacing signal compared to finger tapping (−128.29 ms). In the blocks where stopping was relevant, stop signals induced proactive inhibition, shifting the response times later. However, proactive inhibition (26.11 ms) was less evident for vocalizations compared to finger tapping (58.06 ms). Discussion These results support the interpretation that relatively large negative asynchrony in finger tapping is a consequence of inter-modal integration, whereas smaller asynchrony is associated with intra-modal integration. This study also supports the interpretation that intra-modal integration is more sensitive to synchronization discrepancies compared to inter-modal integration.

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Pinning down response inhibition in the brain — Conjunction analyses of the Stop-signal task

NeuroImage ◽

10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.04.276 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 52 (4) ◽

pp. 1621-1632 ◽

Cited By ~ 126

Author(s):

C.N. Boehler ◽

L.G. Appelbaum ◽

R.M. Krebs ◽

J.M. Hopf ◽

M.G. Woldorff

Keyword(s):

Response Inhibition ◽

Stop Signal ◽

Stop Signal Task ◽

The Brain

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Human brain responses associated with subjective evaluation of error significance are sensitive to error inevitability

10.31234/osf.io/s52ma ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Magdalena Senderecka ◽

Jakub M. Szewczyk

Keyword(s):

Performance Monitoring ◽

Subjective Evaluation ◽

Stop Signal ◽

Stop Signal Task ◽

Error Related Negativity ◽

Brain Responses ◽

Behavioural Adjustment ◽

Early Performance ◽

Elementary Basis ◽

The Brain

This study examined whether error-related brain responses are sensitive to the degree of error inevitability, a factor which seriously affects the attribution of moral responsibility for an error. We were especially interested in error-related negativity (ERN), which is an electrophysiological marker of subjective evaluation of error significance and its motivational value. In addition, we focused on post-error slowing, which is a post-error behavioural adjustment. We hypothesized that the more avoidable the error, and consequently the greater its significance and motivational value, the larger the ERN amplitude, the shorter the ERN latency, and the greater the post-error slowing should be. To elicit errors whose inevitability varies, we used the stop-signal task. The inevitability of errors in this task depends on whether the stop signal is presented before or after a point beyond which the completion of the movement cannot be cancelled. Consistent with our hypotheses, we found that the higher motivational value of avoidable errors was indeed reflected in larger and earlier ERNs. Moreover, avoidable errors led to greater adjustments in subsequent behaviour aimed at preventing similar failures in the future. These findings show that early performance monitoring, as reflected by ERN, involves an evaluation of error inevitability. In a broader perspective, these results indicate that the elementary basis for distinguishing between culpable (avoidable) and non-culpable (unavoidable) errors may occur in the brain several dozen milliseconds after error commission.

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Practical Realization of a Reference System for Earth Dynamics by Satellite Methods

International Astronomical Union Colloquium ◽

10.1017/s0252921100051150 ◽

1975 ◽

Vol 26 ◽

pp. 341-380 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

R. J. Anderle ◽

M. C. Tanenbaum

Keyword(s):

Reference Frame ◽

Polar Motion ◽

Pole Position ◽

Control Points ◽

Significant Information ◽

Crustal Motion ◽

Average Reference ◽

Future Data ◽

Existing Data

AbstractObservations of artificial earth satellites provide a means of establishing an.origin, orientation, scale and control points for a coordinate system. Neither existing data nor future data are likely to provide significant information on the .001 angle between the axis of angular momentum and axis of rotation. Existing data have provided data to about .01 accuracy on the pole position and to possibly a meter on the origin of the system and for control points. The longitude origin is essentially arbitrary. While these accuracies permit acquisition of useful data on tides and polar motion through dynamio analyses, they are inadequate for determination of crustal motion or significant improvement in polar motion. The limitations arise from gravity, drag and radiation forces on the satellites as well as from instrument errors. Improvements in laser equipment and the launch of the dense LAGEOS satellite in an orbit high enough to suppress significant gravity and drag errors will permit determination of crustal motion and more accurate, higher frequency, polar motion. However, the reference frame for the results is likely to be an average reference frame defined by the observing stations, resulting in significant corrections to be determined for effects of changes in station configuration and data losses.

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The Core of What the Brain Does

PsycCRITIQUES ◽

10.1037/a0041047 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 62 (44) ◽

Author(s):

David S. Kreiner

Keyword(s):

The Core ◽

The Brain

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Inhibitory Control on a Stop Signal Task in Tourette Syndrome before and after Deep Brain Stimulation of the Internal Segment of the Globus Pallidus

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci11040461 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 461

Author(s):

Francesca Morreale ◽

Zinovia Kefalopoulou ◽

Ludvic Zrinzo ◽

Patricia Limousin ◽

Eileen Joyce ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Deep Brain Stimulation ◽

Tourette Syndrome ◽

Globus Pallidus ◽

Brain Stimulation ◽

Stop Signal ◽

Stop Signal Task ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Reactive Inhibition ◽

Double Blind ◽

Deep Brain

As part of the first randomized double-blind trial of deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the globus pallidus (GPi) in Tourette syndrome, we examined the effect of stimulation on response initiation and inhibition. A total of 14 patients with severe Tourette syndrome were recruited and tested on the stop signal task prior to and after GPi-DBS surgery and compared to eight age-matched healthy controls. Tics were significantly improved following GPi-DBS. The main measure of reactive inhibition, the stop signal reaction time did not change from before to after surgery and did not differ from that of healthy controls either before or after GPi-DBS surgery. This suggests that patients with Tourette syndrome have normal reactive inhibition which is not significantly altered by GPi-DBS.

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Is motor inhibition involved in the processing of sentential negation? An assessment via the Stop-Signal Task

Psychological Research ◽

10.1007/s00426-021-01512-7 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Martina Montalti ◽

Marta Calbi ◽

Valentina Cuccio ◽

Maria Alessandra Umiltà ◽

Vittorio Gallese

Keyword(s):

Reaction Time ◽

Language Processing ◽

Stop Signal ◽

Stop Signal Task ◽

Motor Inhibition ◽

Good Tool ◽

Scientific Debate ◽

Sentential Negation ◽

Stop Signal Reaction Time ◽

Methodological Considerations

AbstractIn the last decades, the embodied approach to cognition and language gained momentum in the scientific debate, leading to evidence in different aspects of language processing. However, while the bodily grounding of concrete concepts seems to be relatively not controversial, abstract aspects, like the negation logical operator, are still today one of the main challenges for this research paradigm. In this framework, the present study has a twofold aim: (1) to assess whether mechanisms for motor inhibition underpin the processing of sentential negation, thus, providing evidence for a bodily grounding of this logic operator, (2) to determine whether the Stop-Signal Task, which has been used to investigate motor inhibition, could represent a good tool to explore this issue. Twenty-three participants were recruited in this experiment. Ten hand-action-related sentences, both in affirmative and negative polarity, were presented on a screen. Participants were instructed to respond as quickly and accurately as possible to the direction of the Go Stimulus (an arrow) and to withhold their response when they heard a sound following the arrow. This paradigm allows estimating the Stop Signal Reaction Time (SSRT), a covert reaction time underlying the inhibitory process. Our results show that the SSRT measured after reading negative sentences are longer than after reading affirmative ones, highlighting the recruitment of inhibitory mechanisms while processing negative sentences. Furthermore, our methodological considerations suggest that the Stop-Signal Task is a good paradigm to assess motor inhibition’s role in the processing of sentence negation.

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