scholarly journals On the interrelation of 1/f neural noise and norepinephrine system activity during motor response inhibition

2019 ◽  
Vol 121 (5) ◽  
pp. 1633-1643 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maik Pertermann ◽  
Moritz Mückschel ◽  
Nico Adelhöfer ◽  
Tjalf Ziemssen ◽  
Christian Beste
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Response Inhibition ◽  
Pupil Diameter ◽  
Human Information Processing ◽  
System Activity ◽  
Neural Noise ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
Norepinephrine System

Several lines of evidence suggest that there is a close interrelation between the degree of noise in neural circuits and the activity of the norepinephrine (NE) system, yet the precise nexus between these aspects is far from being understood during human information processing and cognitive control in particular. We examine this nexus during response inhibition in n = 47 healthy participants. Using high-density EEG recordings, we estimate neural noise by calculating “1/ f noise” of those data and integrate these EEG parameters with pupil diameter data as an established indirect index of NE system activity. We show that neural noise is reduced when cognitive control processes to inhibit a prepotent/automated response are exerted. These neural noise variations were confined to the theta frequency band, which has also been shown to play a central role during response inhibition and cognitive control. There were strong positive correlations between the 1 /f neural noise parameter and the pupil diameter data within the first 250 ms after the Nogo stimulus presentation at centro-parietal electrode sites. No such correlations were evident during automated responding on Go trials. Source localization analyses using standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography show that inferior parietal areas are activated in this time period in Nogo trials. The data suggest an interrelation of NE system activity and neural noise within early stages of information processing associated with inferior parietal areas when cognitive control processes are required. The data provide the first direct evidence for the nexus between NE system activity and the modulation of neural noise during inhibitory control in humans. NEW & NOTEWORTHY This is the first study showing that there is a nexus between norepinephrine system activity and the modulation of neural noise or scale-free neural activity during inhibitory control in humans. It does so by integrating pupil diameter data with analysis of EEG neural noise.

scholarly journals Tracking reading strategy utilisation through pupillometry

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Y. Wong ◽  
Jarrod Moss ◽  
Christian D. Schunn
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Reading Strategies ◽  
Pupil Diameter ◽  
Reading Strategy ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Expository Texts ◽  
Learning Gains ◽  
Norepinephrine System ◽  
Comprehension Tests

Explicit reading strategies help low-knowledge readers make the inferences necessary to comprehend expository texts. Self-explanation is a particularly effective strategy, but it is challenging to monitor how well a reader is applying self-explanation without requiring the reader to externalise the self-explanations being generated. Studies have shown that different reading strategies vary in the amount of cognitive control required as well as the engagement of brain regions involved in internally-directed attention. Pupil diameter is related to task engagement and cognitive control via the brain’s locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system. Therefore, pupil diameter could be a method to unobtrusively measure a reader’s use of self-explanation. The current study assessed whether pupil diameter can be used to distinguish between the use of different reading strategies and whether it is linked to the quality and effectiveness of the strategy in terms of learning gains. Participants reread, paraphrased, and self-explained texts while pupil diameter was recorded, and completed comprehension tests. Average pupil diameter differed between all three reading strategies, and pupil diameter was related to learning gains and the quality of strategy use. The results suggest that pupil diameter could be used to track effective reading strategy utilisation.

scholarly journals Pupil dilation predicts individual success in emotion regulation and dietary self-control

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Maier ◽  
Marcus Grueschow
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Pupil Diameter ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Control Task ◽  
Norepinephrine System ◽  
Individual Success

AbstractMultiple theories have proposed that increasing central arousal through the brain’s locus coeruleus – norepinephrine system may facilitate cognitive control and memory. However, for emotion research this hypothesis poses a puzzle, because conventionally, successful emotion regulation is associated with a decrease in arousal.Pupil diameter is a proxy to infer upon the central arousal state. We employed an emotion regulation paradigm with a combination of design features that allowed us to dissociate regulation- from stimulus-associated arousal in the pupil diameter time course of healthy adults. A pupil diameter increase during regulation predicted individual differences in emotion regulation success beyond task difficulty. Moreover, the extent of this individual arousal boost predicted performance in another self-control task, dietary health challenges. Participants who harnessed more regulation-associated arousal during emotion regulation were also more successful in choosing healthier foods. These results suggest that a common arousal-based facilitation mechanism may support an individual’s self-control across domains.

scholarly journals Dissociable Brain Mechanisms Underlying the Conscious and Unconscious Control of Behavior

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon van Gaal ◽  
Victor A. F. Lamme ◽  
Johannes J. Fahrenfort ◽  
K. Richard Ridderinkhof
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Conscious Experience ◽  
Conscious Awareness ◽  
Slowing Down ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
P3 Component ◽  
Feedback Connections ◽  
Habitual Responses

Cognitive control allows humans to overrule and inhibit habitual responses to optimize performance in challenging situations. Contradicting traditional views, recent studies suggest that cognitive control processes can be initiated unconsciously. To further capture the relation between consciousness and cognitive control, we studied the dynamics of inhibitory control processes when triggered consciously versus unconsciously in a modified version of the stop task. Attempts to inhibit an imminent response were often successful after unmasked (visible) stop signals. Masked (invisible) stop signals rarely succeeded in instigating overt inhibition but did trigger slowing down of response times. Masked stop signals elicited a sequence of distinct ERP components that were also observed on unmasked stop signals. The N2 component correlated with the efficiency of inhibitory control when elicited by unmasked stop signals and with the magnitude of slowdown when elicited by masked stop signals. Thus, the N2 likely reflects the initiation of inhibitory control, irrespective of conscious awareness. The P3 component was much reduced in amplitude and duration on masked versus unmasked stop trials. These patterns of differences and similarities between conscious and unconscious cognitive control processes are discussed in a framework that differentiates between feedforward and feedback connections in yielding conscious experience.

scholarly journals Response inhibition is driven by top-down network mechanisms and enhanced with focused ultrasound

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin M. Fine ◽  
Maria E. Fini ◽  
Archana S. Mysore ◽  
William J. Tyler ◽  
Marco Santello
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Response Inhibition ◽  
Focused Ultrasound ◽  
Control Function ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Causal Modeling ◽  
Stop Signal Task ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Inhibitory Mechanisms

AbstractResponse inhibition is necessary for humans to safeguard against undesirable action consequences. Inhibitory control consistently recruits the prefrontal right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG) and pre-supplementary motor area. Yet, whether inhibitory control is a defining function of rIFG, distinct from attentional orienting, remains widely debated. The issue emerges from previous studies reporting inhibitory and attentional demands both elicit rIFG activation. Here, we address this issue based on the proposition that inhibitory and attentional control are predicated on different network mechanisms. We derived and causally tested network mechanisms using EEG, dynamic causal modeling (DCM) and focused ultrasound stimulation in humans performing a Stop-Signal task. rIFG stimulation increased inhibitory performance and speed. DCM of evoked responses linked behavioral inhibition to rIFG top-down gain modulation of pre-SMA inhibitory populations. These results reconcile competing accounts of prefrontal cognitive control function, by identifying rIFG-based inhibitory mechanisms as distinct from other top-down cognitive control processes.

scholarly journals A chronometric model of the relationship between frontal midline theta functional connectivity and human intelligence

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna-Lena Schubert ◽  
Dirk Hagemann ◽  
Christoph Löffler ◽  
Jan Rummel ◽  
Stefan Arnau
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Fluid Intelligence ◽  
Adaptive Modulation ◽  
Human Intelligence ◽  
Comparison Task ◽  
Control Processes

Individual differences in cognitive control have been suggested to act as a domain-general bottleneck constraining performance in a variety of cognitive ability measures including but not limited to fluid intelligence, working memory capacity, and processing speed. However, due to psychometric problems associated with the measurement of individual differences in cognitive control, it has been challenging to empirically test the assumption that individual differences in cognitive control underlie individual differences in cognitive abilities. In the present study, we addressed these issues by analyzing the chronometry of intelligence-related differences in mid-frontal global theta connectivity, which has been shown to reflect cognitive control functions. We demonstrate in a sample of 98 adults, who completed a cognitive control task while their EEG was recorded, that individual differences in mid-frontal global theta connectivity during stages of higher-order information-processing explained 65 percent of the variance in fluid intelligence. In comparison, task-evoked theta connectivity during earlier stages of information processing was not related to fluid intelligence. These results suggest that more intelligent individuals benefit from an adaptive modulation of theta-band synchronization during the time-course of information processing. Moreover, they emphasize the role of interregional goal-directed information-processing for cognitive control processes in human intelligence and support theoretical accounts of intelligence which propose that individual differences in cognitive control processes give rise to individual differences in cognitive abilities.

scholarly journals Response inhibition alterations in migraine: An event-related potential study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guoliang Chen ◽  
Yansong Li ◽  
Dong Zhao ◽  
Rongfei Wang ◽  
Dengfa Zhao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Response Inhibition ◽  
Stop Signal ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Time Frequency ◽  
Cortical Hyperexcitability ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Prepotent Responses

Abstract Background Migraine is characterized by a hypersensitivity to environmental stimulation which climaxes during headache attacks but persists during attack-free period. Despite ongoing debates about the nature of the mechanisms giving rise to this abnormality, the presence of deficient inhibitory cortical processes has been proposed to be one possible mechanism underlying its pathogenesis. Empirical evidence supporting this notion is mainly based on previous findings showing functional cortical hyperexcitability in the sensory domain. Considering that a general inhibitory control process can play an important role across early to later stage of information processing, this may in turn indicate the important role other dimensions of inhibitory control can play in migraine disability. To this end, the present study was designed to examine the pathophysiological basis of inhibitiory control that takes place during suppression of prepotent responses. Methods Twenty-two patients with migraine without aura (mean age = 30.86 ± 5.69 years; 19 females) during the interictal period and 25 healthy controls (mean age = 30.24 ± 3.52 years; 18 females) were recruited. We employed a stop signal task in combination with event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine participants’ neural activity supporting response inhibition. Results Behaviorally, migraineurs exhibited prolonged reaction times to the stop signal relative to healthy controls. At the neural level, the amplitude of the stop-N2, a component of the ERPs related to conflict monitoring during early, non-motoric stages of inhibition, was significantly increased in migraineurs. Meanwhile, the amplitude of the stop-P3, a component of the ERPs reflecting late-stage inhibition of the motor system itself and cognitive evaluation of motor inhibition, was also significantly increased in migraineurs. Moreover, our time-frequency analysis has further revealed increased delta activity in the time window used to extract the mean amplitude of the stop-P3 in migraineurs relative to healthy controls. Conclusions Consistent with the theory that cortical hyperexcitability is a key signature of migraine, these findings revealed a decrease in suppressing prepotent responses in migraineurs, which can be attributable to cortical hyperexcitability. These novel findings imply the existence of dysfunctional inhibitory control at later stage of information processing.

scholarly journals Cognitive Flexibility and Inhibition in Individuals with Age-Related Hearing Loss

Geriatrics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Shraddha A. Shende ◽  
Lydia T. Nguyen ◽  
Elizabeth A. Lydon ◽  
Fatima T. Husain ◽  
Raksha A. Mudar
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
Hearing Ability ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Trail Making ◽  
Age Related Hearing Loss

Growing evidence suggests alterations in cognitive control processes in individuals with varying degrees of age-related hearing loss (ARHL); however, alterations in those with unaided mild ARHL are understudied. The current study examined two cognitive control processes, cognitive flexibility, and inhibition, in 21 older adults with unaided mild ARHL and 18 age- and education-matched normal hearing (NH) controls. All participants underwent comprehensive audiological and cognitive evaluations including Trail Making Test-B, Verbal Fluency, Stroop, and two Go/NoGo tasks. Group differences in cognitive flexibility and inhibition as well as associations between peripheral and central hearing ability and measures of cognitive flexibility and inhibition were investigated. Findings revealed that the ARHL group took significantly longer to complete the Stroop task and had higher error rates on NoGo trials on both Go/NoGo tasks relative to the NH controls. Additionally, poorer peripheral and central hearing were associated with poorer cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control. Our findings suggest slower and more inefficient inhibitory control in the mild ARHL group relative to the NH group and add to decades of research on the association between hearing and cognition.

Do Young Children Modulate Their Cognitive Control?

2016 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Solène Ambrosi ◽  
Patrick Lemaire ◽  
Agnès Blaye
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Age Range ◽  
Stroop Tasks ◽  
And Task

Abstract. Dynamic, trial-by-trial modulations of inhibitory control are well documented in adults but rarely investigated in children. Here, we examined whether 5-to-7 year-old children, an age range when inhibitory control is still partially immature, achieve such modulations. Fifty three children took flanker, Simon, and Stroop tasks. Above and beyond classic congruency effects, the present results showed two crucial findings. First, we found evidence for sequential modulations of congruency effects in these young children in the three conflict tasks. Second, our results showed both task specificities and task commonalities. These findings in young children have important implications as they suggest that, to be modulated, inhibitory control does not require full maturation and that the precise pattern of trial-by-trial modulations may depend on the nature of conflict.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document