Are you able not to react to what you hear? Inhibition behavior measured with an auditory Go/NoGo paradigm

Abstract

In everyday life people have to attend to, react to, or inhibit reactions to visual and acoustic cues. These abilities are frequently measured with Go/NoGo tasks using visual stimuli. However, these abilities have rarely been examined with auditory cues. The aims of our study (N = 106) are to develop an auditory Go/NoGo paradigm and to describe brain-healthy participants' performance. We tested convergent validity of the auditory Go/NoGo paradigm by analyzing the correlations with other neuropsychological tasks assessing attentional control and executive functions. We also analyzed the ecological validity of the task by examining correlations of self-reported impulsivity. In the first step we found that the participants are able to differentiate correctly among several sounds and also to appropriately react or inhibit a certain reaction most of the times. Convergent validity was suggested by correlations between the auditory Go/NoGo paradigm and the Color Word Interference Test, Trail Making Test, and Modified Card Sorting Test. We did not find correlations with self-reported impulsivity. Overall, the auditory Go/NoGo paradigm may be used to assess attention and inhibition in the context of auditory stimuli. Future studies may adapt the auditory Go/NoGo paradigm with specific acoustic stimuli (e.g., sound of opening a bottle) in order to address cognitive biases in particular disorders (e.g., alcohol dependence).

Interactions of impulsivity, general executive functions, and specific inhibitory control explain symptoms of social-networks-use disorder: An experimental study

“…Future studies could use the paradigm for assessing specific inhibitory control in other behavioral addictions, e.g., the effect of the auditory signal of a slot machine in individuals with gambling disorder. However, the current results illustrate correlations between the auditory Go-NoGo paradigm and the instruments for measuring general executive functions comparable to the study by Wegmann, et al 84 , which provides initial evidence regarding the validity and reliability of the paradigm (see Supplementary Information). A further limitation is the low reliability of the subscale "attentional impulsivity" of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale 85 .…”

“…An auditory Go-NoGo paradigm modified with social-networks-related cues was used to capture specific inhibitory control. The modified version was based on the auditory Go-NoGo paradigm by Wegmann, et al 84 and the concepts of the visual version by Verdejo-García and Pérez-García 97 . As auditory cues, we used four different kinds of ringtones of comparable length.…”

“…The analog ringtones included two neutral cues, not related to online-communication applications: the rings of a table bell and a bike bell. The analog ringtones were chosen carefully in order to additionally ensure similarities with one of the social-networks-related tones following the taxonomy of Go-NoGo tasks introduced by Verdejo-García and Pérez-García 97 and Wegmann, et al 84 .…”

“…Both sum scores were additionally separated by type of cue, namely digital and analog ringtones (neutral). False reactions in Go trials served as an indicator of deficits in attention and information processing, and false reactions in NoGo trials indicated reduced inhibitory control 84 . Presentation ® software was used to perform the task (Version 16.5, www.neurobs.com).…”

“…Each category contains two stimuli with different attributes (social media vs. analog and "wavy" vs. "bing"). The presentation of the stimuli were pseudorandomized see also 84 .…”