Cardiac signals and the interference of reward on attention and inhibitory control

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mateo Leganes-Fonteneau ◽  
Charlotte Rae

Interoceptive responses can act as potent cues to cognition and behavior; discrete cardiac signals can shape emotional and motivational adaptation towards reward-related cues, but also affect response inhibition. Novel addiction perspectives posit an interoceptive basis for the interplay between reward processing and inhibitory control, but there is a lack of behavioral evidence for this relationship. In this registered report we extend on previous findings to examine how reward cues interact with cardiac-facilitated attention and motor inhibition. Across two sessions, a sample of 35 social drinkers will complete a visual search task (VST) and two instances of a stop signal task (SST). In each task, alcohol or neutral cues will be presented as targets or distractors respectively. In the VST, target stimuli will be presented synchronized with participants’ cardiac phase (systole vs. diastole), examining how cardiac signals support alcohol attentional biases. In a modified SST, Go cues will appear synchronized with cardiac phase while alcohol or neutral cues appear as distractors, examining how cardiac signals increase reward interference in inhibitory control. Finally, in another instance of the SST, Stop signals will appear synchronized with cardiac phase, examining whether interoceptive signals can improve inhibitory control in the presence of reward cues. We hypothesize, at systole, higher attentional biases and interference in inhibitory control for alcohol cues, and that Stop signals can facilitate response inhibition. These results can provide evidence for the role of cardiac signaling in alcohol attentional biases and inhibitory control, extending our understanding of the interoceptive components of addiction.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Javad Dale Allen ◽  
D.Phil. Jill Miranda Hooley

Negative urgency, the self-reported tendency to act impulsively when distressed, increases risk for nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI). Prior research also suggests that NSSI is associated with impaired negative emotional response inhibition (NERI), a cognitive process theoretically related to negative urgency. Specifically, individuals with a history of NSSI had difficulty inhibiting behavioral responses to negative affective images in an Emotional Stop-Signal Task, but not to those depicting positive or neutral content. The present study sought to replicate this finding, determine whether this deficit extends to an earlier stage of NERI, and explore whether impairment in these two stages of emotional inhibitory control helps explain the relationship between negative urgency and NSSI. To address these aims, 88 adults with NSSI histories (n = 45) and healthy control participants (n = 43) without NSSI history or psychopathology completed a clinical interview, symptom inventories, an impulsivity questionnaire, and behavioral impulsivity tasks measuring early and late emotional response inhibition. The NSSI group had worse late NERI than the control group on the Emotional Stop-Signal Task, but no group differences were observed in early NERI on an Emotional Go/no-go task. However, both early and late stages of NERI accounted for independent variance in negative urgency. We additionally found that late NERI explained variance in the association between negative urgency and NSSI. These results suggest that impulsive behavior in NSSI may involve specifically impaired inhibitory control over negative emotional impulses during late response inhibition, and that this cognitive deficit might reflect one mechanism or pathway to elevated negative urgency among people who self-injure.


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 1722 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rupesh Kumar Chikara ◽  
Wei-Cheng Lo ◽  
Li-Wei Ko

Inhibitory control is a cognitive process that inhibits a response. It is used in everyday activities, such as driving a motorcycle, driving a car and playing a game. The effect of this process can be compared to the red traffic light in the real world. In this study, we investigated brain connectivity under human inhibitory control using the phase lag index and inter-trial coherence (ITC). The human brain connectivity gives a more accurate representation of the functional neural network. Results of electroencephalography (EEG), the data sets were generated from twelve healthy subjects during left and right hand inhibitions using the auditory stop-signal task, showed that the inter-trial coherence in delta (1–4 Hz) and theta (4–7 Hz) band powers increased over the frontal and temporal lobe of the brain. These EEG delta and theta band activities neural markers have been related to human inhibition in the frontal lobe. In addition, inter-trial coherence in the delta-theta and alpha (8–12 Hz) band powers increased at the occipital lobe through visual stimulation. Moreover, the highest brain connectivity was observed under inhibitory control in the frontal lobe between F3-F4 channels compared to temporal and occipital lobes. The greater EEG coherence and phase lag index in the frontal lobe is associated with the human response inhibition. These findings revealed new insights to understand the neural network of brain connectivity and underlying mechanisms during human response inhibition.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 286-293
Author(s):  
Qi Zheng ◽  
Tian-Xiao Yang ◽  
Zheng Ye

AbstractObjective:Inhibitory control is a key deficit in patients with schizophrenia. This study aims to test whether emotions can facilitate inhibition in patients with schizophrenia when they increase attention to inhibitory process.Method:A total of 36 patients with schizophrenia and 36 healthy controls completed an emotional stop-signal task. The task involved selective responses to “Go” stimuli and stopped response when emotional or neutral stop cues occurred.Results:In all conditions, patients with schizophrenia took longer time to inhibit response compared with healthy controls, indicating an overall impairment in response inhibition. Importantly, patients with schizophrenia and controls acquired similar size of benefit from the negative stop cues, showing as reduced reaction time to negative than neutral stop cues. However, the negative stop cues impaired subsequent Go performance only in patients with schizophrenia, indicating additional cost of the negative stop cues for patients with schizophrenia. In both groups, the positive stop cues did not have any significant influence on response inhibition.Conclusions:These findings provide novel evidence for the benefit of emotional stop cues on inhibitory control in patients with schizophrenia and reveal different after-effects of emotional enhancement effect in patients and healthy populations. The findings may help develop effective interventions for improving inhibitory control in patients with schizophrenia and other clinical populations.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Tomassini ◽  
Frank Hubert Hezemans ◽  
Rong Ye ◽  
Kamen Tsvetanov ◽  
Noham Wolpe ◽  
...  

Response inhibition is a core executive function enabling adaptive behaviour in dynamic environments. Human and animal models indicate that inhibitory control and control networks are modulated by noradrenaline, arising from the locus coeruleus. The integrity (i.e., cellular density) of the locus coeruleus noradrenergic system can be estimated from magnetization transfer sensitive magnetic resonance imaging, in view of neuromelanin present in noradrenergic neurons of older adults. Noradrenergic psychopharmacological studies indicate noradrenergic modulation of prefrontal and frontostriatal stopping-circuits in association with behavioural change. Here we test the noradrenergic hypothesis of inhibitory control, in healthy adults. We predicted that locus coeruleus integrity is associated with age-adjusted variance in response inhibition, mediated by changes in connectivity between frontal inhibitory control regions. In a preregistered analysis, we used magnetization transfer MRI images from N=63 healthy adults aged above 50 years who performed a stop-signal task, with atlas-based measurement of locus coeruleus contrast. We confirm that better response inhibition is correlated with locus coeruleus integrity and stronger connectivity between pre-supplementary motor area and right inferior frontal gyrus, but not volumes of the cortical regions. We confirmed a significant role of prefrontal connectivity in mediating the effect of individual differences in the locus coeruleus on behaviour, whereby this effect was moderated by age, over and above adjustment for the mean effects of age. Our results support the hypothesis that in normal populations, as in clinical settings, the locus coeruleus noradrenergic system regulates inhibitory control.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guoliang Chen ◽  
Yansong Li ◽  
Zhao Dong ◽  
Rongfei Wang ◽  
Dengfa Zhao ◽  
...  

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 claim is mainly based on previous accounts showing functional cortical disexcitability 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 indicate the important role other dimensions of inhibitory control can play in migraine disability. The present study examined the pathophysiological features of inhibitory control that takes place during suppression of prepotent responses in migraineurs. 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 used a stop signal task in combination with event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine participants’ neural activity supporting response inhibition. Results Behaviorally, migraineurs exhibited prolonged stop signal reaction times relative to healthy controls. At the neural level, the amplitude of the stop-N2 over fronto-central, central and centro-parietal scalp regions, 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 over central and centro-parietal scalp regions, a component of the ERPs reflecting late-stage inhibition of the motor system and cognitive evaluation of motor inhibition, was also significantly increased in migraineurs. Ultimately, our time-frequency analysis further revealed increased delta activity in migraineurs. Conclusions Consistent with the theory that alterations in cognitive cortical processes are a key signature of migraine, our findings revealed an abnormal state of suppressing prepotent responses in migraineurs, which can be attributed to cortical disexcitability of the pre-frontal executive network and centro-parietal sensorimotor network. These novel findings extend to show the existence of dysfunctional inhibition control that occurs during suppression of prepotent responses in migraneurs.


Sexual Abuse ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-319
Author(s):  
Fannie Carrier Emond ◽  
Kevin Nolet ◽  
Lucien Rochat ◽  
Joanne-Lucine Rouleau ◽  
Jean Gagnon

Response inhibition is defined as one’s ability to voluntarily override an automatic or already initiated action when that action is inappropriate. Although a core mechanism of self-control, its association with sexual coercion perpetration and the impact of erotic cues on its exertion remain unknown. According to a domain-specific perspective on impulsivity, response inhibition performances should be disproportionately hindered by sexual cues in sexual coercion perpetrators. In total, 94 male college students completed a stop-signal task that included neutral, emotional, and erotic distracters. Results showed that men who reported past use of sexual coercion obtained overall poorer stop-signal task (SST) performances. Highly arousing sexual stimuli equally hindered the performances of perpetrators and non-perpetrators, whereas moderately arousing sexual and nonsexual positive stimuli did not significantly affect performances. Results do not support a domain-specific perspective on the link between response inhibition and sexual coercion, but rather suggest generally poorer inhibitory control among sexual coercion perpetrators.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joost Wiskerke ◽  
Morgan H. James ◽  
Gary Aston-Jones

AbstractThere is considerable clinical interest in the neuropeptide orexin/hypocretin for its ability to regulate motivation and reward as well as arousal and wakefulness. For instance, antagonists for the orexin-1 receptor (OxR1) are thought to hold great promise for treating drug addiction and disorders associated with overeating, as these compounds repeatedly have been found to suppress seeking of various drugs of abuse as well as highly palatable foods in preclinical models. Given the hypothesized role of OxR1 signaling in cue-driven motivation, an outstanding question is whether pharmacologically blocking this receptor affects cognitive functioning. Response inhibition – the ability to cancel ongoing behavior – is one aspect of cognitive control that may be particularly relevant. Response inhibition deficits are commonly associated with a range of psychiatric disorders and neurological diseases, including substance use disorders and obesity. Moreover, OxR1 signaling recently has been implicated in waiting impulsivity, another aspect of inhibitory control. Here, we investigated the effects of the OxR1 antagonist SB-334867 on response inhibition in a rat version of the stop signal reaction time task. Results show that acutely blocking OxR1 had minimal effects on response inhibition or attentional functioning. In contrast, this manipulation reduced motivation to perform the task and earn food rewards. These results add to the growing body of literature implicating OxR1 in the regulation of motivation and suggest that effects of pharmacological compounds such as SB-334867 on drug seeking behavior are not related to effects on response inhibition.HighlightsOrexin-1 receptor antagonists hold great promise for treatment of drug addictionThese compounds are thought to reduce motivation for drug seekingLess is known about effects of orexin-1 receptor blockade on cognitive functioningWe tested the orexin-1 receptor antagonist SB-334867 in a rat stop signal taskSB-334867 reduced task motivation but had little effect on executive control as measured with response inhibition


Author(s):  
Jason L. He ◽  
Rebecca J. Hirst ◽  
Rohan Puri ◽  
James Coxon ◽  
Winston Byblow ◽  
...  

AbstractThe stop-signal paradigm has become ubiquitous in investigations of inhibitory control. Tasks inspired by the paradigm, referred to as stop-signal tasks, require participants to make responses on go trials and to inhibit those responses when presented with a stop-signal on stop trials. Currently, the most popular version of the stop-signal task is the ‘choice-reaction’ variant, where participants make choice responses, but must inhibit those responses when presented with a stop-signal. An alternative to the choice-reaction variant of the stop-signal task is the ‘anticipated response inhibition’ task. In anticipated response inhibition tasks, participants are required to make a planned response that coincides with a predictably timed event (such as lifting a finger from a computer key to stop a filling bar at a predefined target). Anticipated response inhibition tasks have some advantages over the more traditional choice-reaction stop-signal tasks and are becoming increasingly popular. However, currently, there are no openly available versions of the anticipated response inhibition task, limiting potential uptake. Here, we present an open-source, free, and ready-to-use version of the anticipated response inhibition task, which we refer to as the OSARI (the Open-Source Anticipated Response Inhibition) task.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rong Ye ◽  
Frank Hubert Hezemans ◽  
Claire O'Callaghan ◽  
Kamen A Tsvetanov ◽  
Catarina Rua ◽  
...  

Parkinson's disease and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) both impair response inhibition, exacerbating impulsivity. Inhibitory control deficits vary across individuals, and have been linked with worse prognosis and lack of improvement on dopaminergic therapy. Motor and cognitive control are associated with noradrenergic innervation of the cortex, arising from the locus coeruleus noradrenergic system. Here we test the hypothesis that loss of structural integrity of the locus coeruleus explains response inhibition deficits in progressive supranuclear palsy and Parkinson's disease. This cross-sectional observational study recruited 24 people with idiopathic Parkinson's disease, 14 with PSP-Richardson's syndrome, and 24 age- and sex-matched controls. All participants undertook a stop-signal task and ultrahigh field 7T-magnetic transfer weighted imaging of the locus coeruleus. Hierarchical Bayesian estimation of the parameters of 'race models' of go- versus stop-decisions was used to quantify the cognitive processes of response inhibition. We tested the multivariate relationship between locus coeruleus integrity and model parameters using partial least squares. Both disorders impaired response inhibition at the group level. Progressive supranuclear palsy caused a distinct pattern of abnormalities in inhibitory control, relative to Parkinson's disease and healthy controls, with a paradoxically reduced threshold for go responses, but longer non-decision times, and more lapses of attention. The variation in response inhibition correlated with variation in the integrity of the locus coeruleus, across participants in both clinical groups. Structural imaging of the locus coeruleus, coupled with behavioural modelling in parkinsonian disorders, confirms that locus coeruleus integrity is associated with response inhibition and its degeneration contributes to neurobehavioural changes. The noradrenergic system is therefore a promising target to treat impulsivity in these conditions. The optimisation of noradrenergic treatment is likely to benefit from stratification according to locus coeruleus integrity.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin M. Fine ◽  
Maria E. Fini ◽  
Archana S. Mysore ◽  
William J. Tyler ◽  
Marco Santello

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.


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