scholarly journals Integrating Conflict Detection and Attentional Control Mechanisms

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (9) ◽  
pp. 2211-2221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bong J. Walsh ◽  
Michael H. Buonocore ◽  
Cameron S. Carter ◽  
George R. Mangun
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Control ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Performance Monitoring ◽  
Conflict Detection ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Control Network ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Conflict Monitoring ◽  
Detection Systems ◽  
Increased Activity

Human behavior involves monitoring and adjusting performance to meet established goals. Performance-monitoring systems that act by detecting conflict in stimulus and response processing have been hypothesized to influence cortical control systems to adjust and improve performance. Here we used fMRI to investigate the neural mechanisms of conflict monitoring and resolution during voluntary spatial attention. We tested the hypothesis that the ACC would be sensitive to conflict during attentional orienting and influence activity in the frontoparietal attentional control network that selectively modulates visual information processing. We found that activity in ACC increased monotonically with increasing attentional conflict. This increased conflict detection activity was correlated with both increased activity in the attentional control network and improved speed and accuracy from one trial to the next. These results establish a long hypothesized interaction between conflict detection systems and neural systems supporting voluntary control of visual attention.

Conflict Monitoring Across the Life Span

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 124-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Czernochowski
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Life Span ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Conflict Detection ◽  
Response Conflict ◽  
Conflict Monitoring ◽  
Subsequent Performance ◽  
Additional Control ◽  
Performance Response ◽  
Conflict Detection And Resolution

Errors can play a major role for optimizing subsequent performance: Response conflict associated with (near) errors signals the need to recruit additional control resources to minimize future conflict. However, so far it remains open whether children and older adults also adjust their performance as a function of preceding response conflict. To examine the life span development of conflict detection and resolution, response conflict was elicited during a task-switching paradigm. Electrophysiological correlates of conflict detection for correct and incorrect responses and behavioral indices of post-error adjustments were assessed while participants in four age groups were asked to focus on either speed or accuracy. Despite difficulties in resolving response conflict, the ability to detect response conflict as indexed by the Ne/ERN component was expected to mature early and be preserved in older adults. As predicted, reliable Ne/ERN peaks were detected across age groups. However, only for adults Ne/ERN amplitudes associated with errors were larger compared to Nc/CRN amplitudes for correct trials under accuracy instructions, suggesting an ongoing maturation in the ability to differentiate levels of response conflict. Behavioral interference costs were considerable in both children and older adults. Performance for children and older adults deteriorated rather than improved following errors, in line with intact conflict detection, but impaired conflict resolution. Thus, participants in all age groups were able to detect response conflict, but only young adults successfully avoided subsequent conflict by up-regulating control.

scholarly journals Dissociable early attentional control mechanisms underlying cognitive and affective conflicts

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Taolin Chen ◽  
Keith M. Kendrick ◽  
Chunliang Feng ◽  
Shiyue Sun ◽  
Xun Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Control ◽  
Control Mechanisms

scholarly journals Top–Down Attentional Control in Parkinson's Disease: Salient Considerations

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 848-859 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roshan Cools ◽  
Robert Rogers ◽  
Roger A. Barker ◽  
Trevor W. Robbins
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Set Shifting ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Salient Dimension ◽  
Dimensional Salience

Cognitive dysfunction in Parkinson's disease (PD) has been hypothesized to reflect a failure of cortical control. In keeping with this hypothesis, some of the cognitive deficits in PD resemble those seen in patients with lesions in the lateral pFC, which has been associated with top–down attentional control. However, there is no direct evidence for a failure of top–down control mechanisms in PD. Here we fill this gap by demonstrating disproportionate control by bottom–up attention to dimensional salience during attentional set shifting. Patients needed significantly more trials to criterion than did controls when shifting to a low-salient dimension while, remarkably, needing significantly fewer trials to criterion than did controls when shifting to a high-salient dimension. Thus, attention was captured by bottom–up attention to salient information to a greater extent in patients than in controls. The results provide a striking reinterpretation of prior set-shifting data and provide the first direct evidence for a failure of top–down attentional control, resembling that seen after catecholamine depletion in the pFC.

scholarly journals Reductions in prefrontal activation predict off-topic utterances during speech production

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Hoffman
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Formal Analysis ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Healthy Older Adults ◽  
Linguistic Analyses ◽  
Complex Goal ◽  
First Time ◽  
Increased Activity ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractThe ability to speak coherently is essential for effective communication but declines with age: older people more frequently produce tangential, off-topic speech. Little is known, however, about the neural systems that support coherence in speech production. Here, fMRI was used to investigate extended speech production in healthy older adults. Computational linguistic analyses were used to quantify the coherence of utterances produced in the scanner, allowing identification of the neural correlates of coherence for the first time. Highly coherent speech production was associated with increased activity in bilateral inferior prefrontal cortex (BA45), an area implicated in selection of task-relevant knowledge from semantic memory, and in bilateral rostrolateral prefrontal cortex (BA10), implicated more generally in planning of complex goal-directed behaviours. These findings demonstrate that neural activity during spontaneous speech production can be predicted from formal analysis of speech content, and that multiple prefrontal systems contribute to coherence in speech.

A conflict monitoring account of the control mechanisms involved in dual-tasking

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 704-714 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Olszanowski ◽  
Maria Teresa Bajo ◽  
Arnaud Szmalec
Keyword(s):  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Conflict Monitoring ◽  
Dual Tasking

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.

Attentional bias modification facilitates attentional control mechanisms: Evidence from eye tracking

2015 ◽  
Vol 104 ◽  
pp. 139-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nigel T.M. Chen ◽  
Patrick J.F. Clarke ◽  
Tamara L. Watson ◽  
Colin MacLeod ◽  
Adam J. Guastella
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Attentional Bias ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Attentional Bias Modification ◽  
Bias Modification

Inclusion of Attentional Networks in the Pre-Surgical Neuroimaging Assessment of a Large Deep Hemispheric Cavernous Malformation: An fMRI Case Report

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 202-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marla J.S. Mickleborough ◽  
Michael E. Kelly ◽  
Layla Gould ◽  
Chelsea Ekstrand ◽  
Eric Lorentz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Case Report ◽  
Surgical Resection ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Cavernous Malformation ◽  
Control Network ◽  
Superior Parietal Lobule ◽  
Surgical Access ◽  
Parietal Lobule

Background and Importance: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a noninvasive and reliable tool for mapping eloquent cortex in patients prior to brain surgery. Ensuring intact perceptual and cognitive processing is a key goal for neurosurgeons, and recent research has indicated the value of including attentional network processing in pre-surgical fMRI in order to help preserve such abilities, including reading, after surgery. Clinical Presentation: We report a 42-year-old patient with a large cavernous malformation, near the left basal ganglia. The lesion measured 3.8 × 1.7 × 1.8 cm. In consultation with the patient and the multidisciplinary cerebrovascular team, the decision was made to offer the patient surgical resection. The surgical resection involved planned access via the left superior parietal lobule using stereotactic location. The patient declined an awake craniotomy; therefore, direct electrocortical stimulation (ECS) could not be used for intraoperative language localization in this case. Pre-surgical planning included fMRI localization of language, motor, sensory, and attentional processing. The key finding was that both reading and attention-processing tasks revealed consistent activation of the left superior parietal lobule, part of the attentional control network, and the site of the planned surgical access. Given this information, surgical access was adjusted to avoid interference with the attentional control network. The lesion was removed via the left inferior parietal lobule. The patient had no new neurologic deficits postoperatively but did develop mild neuropathic pain in the left hand. Conclusion: This case report supports recent research that indicates the value of including fMRI maps of attentional tasks along with traditional language-processing tasks in preoperative planning in patients undergoing neurosurgery procedures.

scholarly journals The Influence of Visual Perturbations on the Neural Control of Limb Stiffness

2009 ◽  
Vol 101 (1) ◽  
pp. 246-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Wong ◽  
Elizabeth T. Wilson ◽  
Nicole Malfait ◽  
Paul L. Gribble
Keyword(s):  
Visual Information ◽  
Motor System ◽  
Neural Control ◽  
Visual Signals ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Lateral Direction ◽  
Limb Stiffness ◽  
Environmental Instability ◽  
Stiffness Control ◽  
Visual Perturbation

To adapt to novel unstable environments, the motor system modulates limb stiffness to produce selective increases in arm stability. The motor system receives information about the environment via somatosensory and proprioceptive signals related to the perturbing forces and visual signals indicating deviations from an expected hand trajectory. Here we investigated whether subjects modulate limb stiffness during adaptation to a purely visual perturbation. In a first experiment, measurements of limb stiffness were taken during adaptation to an elastic force field (EF). Observed changes in stiffness were consistent with previous reports: subjects increased limb stiffness and did so only in the direction of the environmental instability. In a second experiment, stiffness changes were measured during adaptation to a visual perturbing environment that magnified hand-path deviations in the lateral direction. In contrast to the first experiment, subjects trained in this visual task showed no accompanying change in stiffness, despite reliable improvements in movement accuracy. These findings suggest that this sort of visual information alone may not be sufficient to engage neural systems for stiffness control, which may depend on sensory signals more directly related to perturbing forces, such as those arising from proprioception and somatosensation.

scholarly journals Anticipating Conflict Facilitates Controlled Stimulus-response Selection

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (8) ◽  
pp. 1461-1472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ángel Correa ◽  
Anling Rao ◽  
Anna C. Nobre
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Temporal Resolution ◽  
Response Selection ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Conflict Detection ◽  
High Temporal Resolution ◽  
Proactive Control ◽  
Conflict Monitoring ◽  
Sequential Effects ◽  
Monitoring Model

Cognitive control can be triggered in reaction to previous conflict, as suggested by the finding of sequential effects in conflict tasks. Can control also be triggered proactively by presenting cues predicting conflict (“proactive control”)? We exploited the high temporal resolution of ERPs and controlled for sequential effects to ask whether proactive control based on anticipating conflict modulates neural activity related to cognitive control, as may be predicted from the conflict-monitoring model. ERPs associated with conflict detection (N2) were measured during a cued flanker task. Symbolic cues were either informative or neutral with respect to whether the target involved conflicting or congruent responses. Sequential effects were controlled by analyzing the congruency of the previous trial. The results showed that cueing conflict facilitated conflict resolution and reduced the N2 latency. Other potentials (frontal N1 and P3) were also modulated by cueing conflict. Cueing effects were most evident after congruent than after incongruent trials. This interaction between cueing and sequential effects suggests neural overlap between the control networks triggered by proactive and reactive signals. This finding clarifies why previous neuroimaging studies, in which reactive sequential effects were not controlled, have rarely found anticipatory effects upon conflict-related activity. Finally, the high temporal resolution of ERPs was critical to reveal a temporal modulation of conflict detection by proactive control. This novel finding suggests that anticipating conflict speeds up conflict detection and resolution. Recent research suggests that this anticipatory mechanism may be mediated by preactivation of ACC during the preparatory interval.

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