Age affects the adjustment of cognitive control after a conflict: evidence from the bivalency effect

Age affects cognitive control. When facing a conflict, older adults are less able to activate goal-relevant information and inhibit irrelevant information. However, cognitive control also affects the events after a conflict. The purpose of this study was to determine whether age affects the adjustment of cognitive control following a conflict. To this end, we investigated the bivalency effect, that is, the performance slowing occurring after the conflict induced by bivalent stimuli (i.e., stimuli with features for two tasks). In two experiments, we tested young adults (aged 20-30) and older adults (aged 65-85) in a paradigm requiring alternations between three tasks, with bivalent stimuli occasionally occurring on one task. The young adults showed a slowing for all trials following bivalent stimuli. This indicates a widespread and long-lasting bivalency effect, replicating previous findings. In contrast, the older adults showed a more specific and shorter-lived slowing. Thus, age affects the adjustment of cognitive control following a conflict.

Eye Movement Measures of Cognitive Control in Children with Tourette Syndrome

Tourette Syndrome begins in childhood and is characterized by uncontrollable repetitive actions like neck craning or hopping and noises such as sniffing or chirping. Worst in early adolescence, these tics wax and wane in severity and occur in bouts unpredictably, often drawing unwanted attention from bystanders. Making matters worse, over half of children with Tourette Syndrome also suffer from comorbid, or concurrent, disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). These disorders introduce anxious thoughts, impulsivity, inattention, and mood variability that further disrupt children with Tourette Syndrome from focusing and performing well at school and home. Thus, deficits in the cognitive control functions of response inhibition, response generation, and working memory have long been ascribed to Tourette Syndrome. Yet, without considering the effect of medication, age, and comorbidity, this is a premature attribution. This study used an infrared eye tracking camera and various computer tasks requiring eye movement responses to evaluate response inhibition, response generation, and working memory in Tourette Syndrome. This study, the first to control for medication, age, and comorbidity, enrolled 39 unmedicated children with Tourette Syndrome and 29 typically developing peers aged 10-16 years who completed reflexive and voluntary eye movement tasks and diagnostic rating scales to assess symptom severities of Tourette Syndrome, ADHD, and OCD. Children with Tourette Syndrome and comorbid ADHD and/or OCD, but not children with Tourette Syndrome only, took longer to respond and made more errors and distracted eye movements compared to typically-developing children, displaying cognitive control deficits. However, increasing symptom severities of Tourette Syndrome, ADHD, and OCD correlated with one another. Thus, cognitive control deficits were not specific to Tourette Syndrome patients with comorbid conditions, but rather increase with increasing tic severity, suggesting that a majority of Tourette Syndrome patients, regardless of a clinical diagnosis of ADHD and/or OCD, have symptoms of cognitive control deficits at some level. Therefore, clinicians should evaluate and counsel all families of children with Tourette Syndrome, with or without currently diagnosed ADHD and/or OCD, about the functional ramifications of comorbid symptoms and that they may wax and wane with tic severity.

Modulation of anticipatory emotion and perception processing by cognitive control.

Strategies of cognitive control are helpful in reducing anxiety experienced during anticipation of unpleasant or potentially unpleasant events. We investigated the associated cerebral information processing underlying the use of a specific cognitive control strategy during the anticipation of affect-laden events. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined differential brain activity during anticipation of events of unknown and negative emotional valence in a group of eighteen healthy subjects that used a cognitive control strategy, similar to "reality checking" as used in psychotherapy, compared with a group of sixteen subjects that did not exert cognitive control. While expecting unpleasant stimuli, the "cognitive control" group showed higher activity in left medial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex areas but reduced activity in the left extended amygdala, pulvinar/lateral geniculate nucleus and fusiform gyrus. Cognitive control during the "unknown" expectation was associated with reduced amygdalar activity as well and further with reduced insular and thalamic activity. The amygdala activations associated with cognitive control correlated negatively with the reappraisal scores of an emotion regulation questionnaire. The results indicate that cognitive control of particularly unpleasant emotions is associated with elevated prefrontal cortex activity that may serve to attenuate emotion processing in for instance amygdala, and, notably, in perception related brain areas.

More conflict does not trigger more adjustment of cognitive control for subsequent events: A study of the bivalency effect

Encountering a conflict triggers an adjustment of cognitive control. This adjustment of cognitive control can even affect subsequent performance. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether more conflict triggers more adjustment of cognitive control for subsequent performance. To this end, we focussed on the bivalency effect, that is, the adjustment of cognitive control following the conflict induced by bivalent stimuli (i.e., stimuli with relevant features for two tasks). In two experiments, we tested whether the amount of conflict triggered by bivalent stimuli affected the bivalency effect. Bivalent stimuli were either compatible (i.e., affording one response) or incompatible (i.e., affording two different responses). Thus, compatible bivalent stimuli involved a task conflict, whereas incompatible bivalent stimuli involved a task and a response conflict. The results showed that the bivalency effect was not affected by this manipulation. This indicates that more conflict does not trigger more adjustment of cognitive control for subsequent performance. Therefore, only the occurrence of conflict--not its amount--is determinant for cognitive control.

More conflict does not trigger more adjustment of cognitive control for subsequent performance: A study of the bivalency effect

Encountering a conflict triggers an adjustment of cognitive control. This adjustment of cognitive control can even affect subsequent performance. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether more conflict triggers more adjustment of cognitive control for subsequent performance. To this end, we focussed on the bivalency effect, that is, the adjustment of cognitive control following the conflict induced by bivalent stimuli (i.e., stimuli with relevant features for two tasks). In two experiments, we tested whether the amount of conflict triggered by bivalent stimuli affected the bivalency effect. Bivalent stimuli were either compatible (i.e., affording one response) or incompatible (i.e., affording two different responses). Thus, compatible bivalent stimuli involved a task conflict, whereas incompatible bivalent stimuli involved a task and a response conflict. The results showed that the bivalency effect was not affected by this manipulation. This indicates that more conflict does not trigger more adjustment of cognitive control for subsequent performance. Therefore, only the occurrence of conflict – not its amount – is determinant for cognitive control

Conflict and cognitive control during sentence comprehension: recruitment of a frontal network during the processing of Spanish object-first sentences.

During sentence processing there is a preference to treat the first noun phrase found as the subject and agent, unless marked the other way. This preference would lead to a conflict in thematic role assignment when the syntactic structure conforms to a non-canonical object-before-subject pattern. Left perisylvian and fronto-parietal brain networks have been found to be engaged by increased computational demands during sentence comprehension, while event-reated brain potentials have been used to study the on-line manifestation of these demands. However, evidence regarding the spatiotemporal organization of brain networks in this domain is scarce. In the current study we used Magnetoencephalography to track spatio-temporally brain activity while Spanish speakers were reading subject- and object-first cleft sentences. Both kinds of sentences remained ambiguous between a subject-first or an object-first interpretation up to the appearance of the second argument. Results show the time-modulation of a frontal network at the disambiguation point of object-first sentences. Moreover, the time windows where these effects took place have been previously related to thematic role integration (300–500 ms) and to sentence reanalysis and resolution of conflicts during processing (beyond 500 ms post-stimulus). These results point to frontal cognitive control as a putative key mechanism which may operate when a revision of the sentence structure and meaning is necessary

Artificial cognitive control system based on the shared circuits model of sociocognitive capacities. A first approach

sharedcircuitmodels is presented in this work. The sharedcircuitsmodelapproach of sociocognitivecapacities recently proposed by Hurley in The sharedcircuitsmodel (SCM): how control, mirroring, and simulation can enable imitation, deliberation, and mindreading. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 31(1) (2008) 1–22 is enriched and improved in this work. A five-layer computational architecture for designing artificialcognitivecontrolsystems is proposed on the basis of a modified sharedcircuitsmodel for emulating sociocognitive experiences such as imitation, deliberation, and mindreading. In order to show the enormous potential of this approach, a simplified implementation is applied to a case study. An artificialcognitivecontrolsystem is applied for controlling force in a manufacturing process that demonstrates the suitability of the suggested approach

The impact of cognitive control on children's goal monitoring in a time-based prospective memory task

Peer reviewed

Development of reasoning:Behavioral evidence to support reinforcement over cognitive control accounts

Speed's theory makes two predictions for the development of analogical reasoning. Firstly, young children should not be able to reason analogically due to an undeveloped PFC neural network. Secondly, category knowledge enables the reinforcement of structural features over surface features, and thus the development of sophisticated, analogical, reasoning. We outline existing studies that support these predictions and highlight some critical remaining issues. Specifically, we argue that the development of inhibition must be directly compared alongside the development of reasoning strategies in order to support Speed's account. © 2010 Psychology Press.

The impact of anxiety-inducing distraction on cognitive performance: a combined brain imaging and personality investigation.

BACKGROUND: Previous investigations revealed that the impact of task-irrelevant emotional distraction on ongoing goal-oriented cognitive processing is linked to opposite patterns of activation in emotional and perceptual vs. cognitive control/executive brain regions. However, little is known about the role of individual variations in these responses. The present study investigated the effect of trait anxiety on the neural responses mediating the impact of transient anxiety-inducing task-irrelevant distraction on cognitive performance, and on the neural correlates of coping with such distraction. We investigated whether activity in the brain regions sensitive to emotional distraction would show dissociable patterns of co-variation with measures indexing individual variations in trait anxiety and cognitive performance. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Event-related fMRI data, recorded while healthy female participants performed a delayed-response working memory (WM) task with distraction, were investigated in conjunction with behavioural measures that assessed individual variations in both trait anxiety and WM performance. Consistent with increased sensitivity to emotional cues in high anxiety, specific perceptual areas (fusiform gyrus--FG) exhibited increased activity that was positively correlated with trait anxiety and negatively correlated with WM performance, whereas specific executive regions (right lateral prefrontal cortex--PFC) exhibited decreased activity that was negatively correlated with trait anxiety. The study also identified a role of the medial and left lateral PFC in coping with distraction, as opposed to reflecting a detrimental impact of emotional distraction. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide initial evidence concerning the neural mechanisms sensitive to individual variations in trait anxiety and WM performance, which dissociate the detrimental impact of emotion distraction and the engagement of mechanisms to cope with distracting emotions. Our study sheds light on the neural correlates of emotion-cognition interactions in normal behaviour, which has implications for understanding factors that may influence susceptibility to affective disorders, in general, and to anxiety disorders, in particular.

Resolving response, decision, and strategic control: evidence for a functional topography in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex.

The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) plays a central role in aspects of cognitive control and decision making. Here, we provide evidence for an anterior-to-posterior topography within the DMPFC using tasks that evoke three distinct forms of control demands--response, decision, and strategic--each of which could be mapped onto independent behavioral data. Specifically, we identify three spatially distinct regions within the DMPFC: a posterior region associated with control demands evoked by multiple incompatible responses, a middle region associated with control demands evoked by the relative desirability of decision options, and an anterior region that predicts control demands related to deviations from an individual's preferred decision-making strategy. These results provide new insight into the functional organization of DMPFC and suggest how recent controversies about its role in complex decision making and response mapping can be reconciled.

The time course of conflict on the Cognitive Reflection Test

Reasoning that is deliberative and reflective often requires the inhibition of intuitive responses. The Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) is designed to assess people’s ability to suppress incorrect heuristic responses in favour of deliberation. Correct responding on the CRT predicts performance on a range of tasks in which intuitive processes lead to incorrect responses, suggesting indirectly that CRT performance is related to cognitive control. Yet little is known about the cognitive processes underlying performance on the CRT. In the current research, we employed a novel mouse tracking mjavascript:void(0);ethodology to capture the time-course of reasoning on the CRT. Analysis of mouse cursor trajectories revealed that participants were initially drawn towards the incorrect (i.e., intuitive) option even when the correct (deliberative) option was ultimately chosen. Conversely, participants were not attracted to the correct option when they ultimately chose the incorrect intuitive one. We conclude that intuitive processes are activated automatically on the CRT and must be inhibited in order to respond correctly. When participants responded intuitively, there was no evidence that deliberative reasoning had become engaged.

Cortical and autonomic modulation of attentional control /

Whereas the role of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in cognitive control has received considerable attention, much less work has been done on the role of the ACC in autonomic regulation. Its connections through the vagus nerve to the sinoatrial node of the heart are thought to exert modulatory control over cardiovascular arousal. Therefore, ACC is not only responsible for the implementation of cognitive control, but also for the dynamic regulation of cardiovascular activity that characterizes healthy heart rate and adaptive behaviour. However, cognitive control and autonomic regulation are rarely examined together. Moreover, those studies that have examined the role of phasic vagal cardiac control in conjunction with cognitive performance have produced mixed results, finding relations for specific age groups and types of tasks but not consistently. So, while autonomic regulatory control appears to support effective cognitive performance under some conditions, it is not presently clear just what factors contribute to these relations. The goal of the present study was, therefore, to examine the relations between autonomic arousal, neural responsivity, and cognitive performance in the context of a task that required ACC support. Participants completed a primary inhibitory control task with a working memory load embedded. Pre-test cardiovascular measures were obtained, and ontask ERPs associated with response control (N2/P3) and error-related processes (ERN/Pe) were analyzed. Results indicated that response inhibition was unrelated to phasic vagal cardiac control, as indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). However, higher resting RSA was associated with larger ERN ampUtude for the highest working memory load condition. This finding suggests that those individuals with greater autonomic regulatory control exhibited more robust ACC error-related responses on the most challenging task condition. On the other hand, exploratory analyses with rate pressure product (RPP), a measure of sympathetic arousal, indicated that higher pre-test RPP (i.e., more sympathetic influence) was associated with more errors on "catch" NoGo trials, i.e., NoGo trials that simultaneously followed other NoGo trials, and consequently, reqviired enhanced response control. Higher pre-test RPP was also associated with smaller amplitude ERNs for all three working memory loads and smaller ampUtude P3s for the low and medium working memory load conditions. Thus, higher pretest sympathetic arousal was associated with poorer performance on more demanding "catch" NoGo trials and less robust ACC-related electrocortical responses. The findings firom the present study highlight tiie interdependence of electrocortical and cardiovascular processes. While higher pre-test parasympathetic control seemed to relate to more robust ACC error-related responses, higher pre-test sympathetic arousal resulted in poorer inhibitory control performance and smaller ACC-generated electrocortical responses. Furthermore, these results provide a base from which to explore the relation between ACC and neuro/cardiac responses in older adults who may display greater variance due to the vulnerabihty of these systems to the normal aging process.

Inhibitory control in memory: evidence for negative priming in free recall

Cognitive control mechanisms—such as inhibition—decrease the likelihood that goal-directed activity is ceded to irrelevant events. Here, we use the action of auditory distraction to show how retrieval from episodic long-term memory is affected by competitor inhibition. Typically, a sequence of to-be-ignored spoken distracters drawn from the same semantic category as a list of visually-presented to-be-recalled items impairs free recall performance. In line with competitor inhibition theory (Anderson, 2003), free recall was worse for items on a probe trial if they were a repeat of distracter items presented during the previous, prime, trial (Experiment 1). This effect was only produced when the distracters were dominant members of the same category as the to-be-recalled items on the prime. For prime trials in which distracters were low-dominant members of the to-be-remembered item category or were unrelated to that category—and hence not strong competitors for retrieval—positive priming was found (Experiments 2 & 3). These results are discussed in terms of inhibitory approaches to negative priming and memory retrieval.