A review on the electroencephalography markers of Stroop executive control processes

Abstract

The present article on executive control addresses the issue of the locus of the Stroop effect by examining neurophysiological components marking conflict monitoring, interference suppression, and conflict resolution. Our goal was to provide an overview of a series of determining neurophysiological findings including neural source reconstruction data on distinct executive control processes and sub-processes involved in the Stroop task. Consistently, a fronto-central N2 component is found to reflect conflict monitoring processes, with its main neural generator being the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Then, for cognitive control tasks that involve a linguistic component like the Stroop task, the N2 is followed by a centro-posterior N400 and subsequently a late sustained potential (LSP). The N400 is mainly generated by the ACC and the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and is thought to reflect interference suppression, whereas the LSP plausibly reflects conflict resolution processes. The present overview shows that ERP constitute a reliable methodological tool for tracing with precision the time course of different executive processes and sub-processes involved in experimental tasks involving a cognitive conflict. Future research should shed light on the fine-grained mechanisms of control respectively involved in linguistic and non-linguistic tasks.

Mental Fatigue-Associated Decrease in Table Tennis Performance: Is There an Electrophysiological Signature?

“…N1 was measured because of its proven susceptibility to MF, association with early visual processing originating from the visual cortex and involvement in spatial attention [ 31 , 34 , 37 ]. Both P2 and N2 have also been shown to be impacted by MF, and are also believed to originate from the ACC, an area that has been assumed to be the physiological basis of the effect of MF on human performance [ 25 , 26 , 31 , 32 , 34 ]. The P2 is a visual sensory ERP which has been proposed to represent salience detection, the recall of task rules, and allocation of attentional resources [ 30 , 31 , 38 ].…”

“…The P2 is a visual sensory ERP which has been proposed to represent salience detection, the recall of task rules, and allocation of attentional resources [ 30 , 31 , 38 ]. N2 is an anteriorly located ERP and represents processes of cognitive control, such as conflict monitoring, response inhibition, and error monitoring [ 32 , 37 ]. Lastly, P3b has frequently been connected to (among other cognitive processes) attentional resources, decision making, executive functions and motoric functions, which are all processes that are negatively impacted by MF [ 18 , 26 , 39 ].…”

“…This component is theorized to be a measure of, among other things, the allocation of attentional resources, a mechanism frequently associated with MF effects [ 30 , 31 ]. Other ERPs of interest in MF research include P3b [ 26 ], N2 [ 32 , 33 ] and N1 [ 32 , 33 , 34 ], with all of them connected to specific mechanisms of MF. However, the addition of EEG measures in MF research remains in its infancy, and studies investigating these measures during motor tasks are also rare [ 18 ].…”

The Effect of Prior Knowledge of Color on Behavioral Responses and Event-Related Potentials During Go/No-go Task

“…This result can be attributed to a conflict between prior knowledge of color and the meaning of presented color, as N2 amplitude has been shown to be larger in incongruent than congruent trial in the Stroop task ( Boenke et al, 2009 ; Pan et al, 2016 ). In a recent review by Heidlmayr et al (2020) , the cortical origin of N2 was considered to be the ACC, IFC, and/or prefrontal cortex. It has been reported that the ACC detects the presence of conflict ( Botvinick et al, 2001 ), subsequently engaging the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to impose cognitive control to resolve the conflict ( Parris et al, 2019 ), whereas the IFC is responsible for processing of both response and semantic conflicts ( Parris et al, 2019 ).…”

Simultaneous Damage of the Cingulate Cortex Zone II and Fronto-Striatal Circuit Causes Prolonged Selective Attentional Deficits

“…For instance, previous neuroimaging and neurophysiological studies and direct electrical stimulation during brain tumor surgery revealed the related brain regions such as the frontal lobe including the CC, dolso-lateral prefrontal cortex, and inferior frontal gyrus, in the Stroop test (Goethals et al, 2004;Wager et al, 2013;Song and Hakoda, 2015;Zhang et al, 2017;Heidlmayr et al, 2020). In particular, the CC plays an important role in tasks that require selective attention with cognitive control, such as the Stroop test (Wager et al, 2013;Heidlmayr et al, 2020). On the other hand, it is not common knowledge that CC zone II plays a central role in selective attention.…”