Dissociation of sustained attention from central executive functions: local activity and interregional connectivity in the theta range

Abstract

Human brain oscillatory activity was analysed in the electroencephalographic theta frequency range (4-7 Hz) while subjects executed complex sequential finger movements with varying task difficulty and memory load. Local frontal-midline theta activity was associated with the general level of cognitive demand, with the highest amplitudes in the most demanding condition. Using low-resolution electromagnetic tomography analysis (LORETA), this theta activity was localized in the anterior cingulate gyrus including the cingulate motor area. These results suggest that local theta activity in the anterior cingulate gyrus represents correlates of an attentional system that allocate cognitive resources. In addition, interregional connectivity in the theta frequency range was modulated by memory-related executive functions independently of task difficulty. Connectivity analyses revealed a more distributed long-range network including frontal and parietal cortices during execution of novel compared with well-trained finger movement sequences. Thus, these results are compatible with a model in which theta long-range coupling indicates integration of sensory information into executive control components of complex motor behaviour.

Theta oscillations predict the detrimental effects of memory retrieval

“…In this case, high degrees of interference resolution may lead to low resulting levels of interference, due to efficient inhibition of the competing memory items and high degrees of forgetting, which is exactly what the present relationship between theta oscillatory activity and RIF suggests. If frontal midline theta oscillations are generated in the ACC (Ishii et al, 1999;Onton, Delorme, & Makeig, 2005;Sauseng, Hoppe, Klimesch, Gerloff, & Hummel, 2007), our results are in accordance with a recent fMRI study, demonstrating a negative correlation between ACC activation and RIF (Wimber et al, 2009). This suggestion is also in line with the results of Kuhl et al (2007), who showed that the BOLD signal in prefrontal brain regions decreased over repeated retrieval attempts and that this decrease predicted RIF.…”

Sensorimotor Rhythm Neurofeedback Enhances Golf Putting Performance

“…Similarly, studies found that reduced (Kao, Huang, & Hung, 2013) and stable (Chuang, Huang, & Hung, 2013) frontal midline theta power was the precursor of superior performance in precision sports. Since high-frequency alpha power in these cortical areas reflect only task-related attention (Klimesch, Doppelmayr, Pachinger, & Ripper, 1997) whereas frontal midline theta power indicates top-down sustained attention (Sauseng, Hoppe, Klimesch, Gerloff, & Hummel, 2007), these findings support the importance of specialized task-related attention on superior motor performance. However, the information encoded during automatic somatosensory processing during skilled precision sport performance remains unexamined as yet.…”

The effect of task demand and incentive on neurophysiological and cardiovascular markers of effort

“…working memory, novelty detection (Cavanagh and Frank, 2014). Research in cognitive neuroscience on the theta band has focused specifically on activity in the frontomedial region, increased levels of theta page 5 in this area were found to increase in a linear fashion with working memory load (Gevins and Smith, 2003); (Onton et al, 2005) and during the execution of skilled motor performance (Sauseng et al, 2007). Increased theta at the frontomedial region has also been associated with successful working memory manipulation (Itthipuripat et al, 2013) and skilled sports performance in basketball (Chuang et al, 2013) and rifle shooting (Doppelmayr et al, 2008).…”