Event‐related potentials associated with attentional networks evidence changes in executive and arousal vigilance

Abstract

Attention is regulated by three independent but interacting networks, that is, alerting, comprising phasic alertness and vigilance, orienting, and executive control. Previous studies analyzing event‐related potentials (ERPs) associated with attentional networks have focused on phasic alertness, orienting, and executive control, without an independent measure of vigilance. ERPs associated with vigilance have been instead measured in separate studies and via different tasks. The present study aimed to differentiate ERPs associated with attentional networks by simultaneously measuring vigilance along with phasic alertness, orienting, and executive control. Forty participants (34 women, age: M = 25.96; SD = 4.96) completed two sessions wherein the electroencephalogram was recorded while they completed the Attentional Networks Test for Interactions and Vigilance—executive and arousal components, a task that measures phasic alertness, orienting, and executive control along with executive (i.e., detection of infrequent critical signals) and arousal (i.e., sustaining a fast reaction to environmental stimuli) vigilance. ERPs previously associated with attentional networks were replicated here: (a) N1, P2, and contingent negative variation for phasic alertness; (b) P1, N1, and P3 for orienting; and (c) N2 and slow positivity for executive control. Importantly, different ERPs were associated with vigilance: while the executive vigilance decrement was associated with an increase in P3 and slow positivity across time‐on‐task, arousal vigilance loss was associated with reduced N1 and P2 amplitude. The present study shows that attentional networks can be described by different ERPs simultaneously observed in a single session, including independent measures of executive and arousal vigilance on its assessment.

Different oscillatory rhythms anticipate failures in executive and arousal vigilance

“…Polynomial contrasts demonstrated a significant and negative linear component for hits across blocks [t (34) = −5.23, p < 0.001, η 2 p = 0.45, CI 95% (0.24, 1.00)]. Unexpectedly, however, the AV decrement was not observed in the present study and Luna et al (2023) (see Figure 2B): the change of mean RT across blocks was not significant [F (3.93,133.78) = 0.46, p = 0.764, η 2 p = 0.01, CI 95% (0.00, 0.03)]. A summary of EV and AV overall performance is presented in Table 1.…”

“…As reported in Luna et al (2023) and similarly to previous studies with the ANTI-Vea (Luna et al, 2018(Luna et al, , 2021a, the EV decrement was observed as a significant change in hits across time-on-task [F (4.55,154.58) = 9.70, p < 0.001, η 2 p = 0.22, CI 95% (0.11, 0.30); see Figure 2A]. Polynomial contrasts demonstrated a significant and negative linear component for hits across blocks [t (34) = −5.23, p < 0.001, η 2 p = 0.45, CI 95% (0.24, 1.00)].…”

“…For each vigilance component, frequency power changes for all bands were analyzed in different vigilance states as a function of the behavioral response, i.e., as optimal performance (hits in EV and fastest RT in AV) or failures in performance (misses in EV and slowest RT in AV). Importantly, in a recent study conducted in our lab, differences in EV and AV states were associated with changes in different event-related potentials: while P1 amplitude in central-parietal regions was larger in hits than misses for EV, N1, and P2 amplitude in occipital channels was smaller in fastest RT than slowest RT for AV (Luna et al, 2023). We expect the present study to contribute in characterizing whether different neural states, described as changes in power in specific oscillatory rhythms, may be useful to anticipate specific vigilance failures when performing prolonged tasks without breaks.…”

“…Given that the main aim of the present study was to analyze vigilance failures, behavioral data analyses were focused on EV and AV components measured with the ANTI-Vea. Data analyses on the main effects and interactions of the classic attentional functions measured in the ANTI trials were analyzed and reported in a separated study aiming to analyze event-related potentials associated with attentional networks functions (Luna et al, 2023).…”

“…In particular, whereas the EV decrement has been reduced by exercise intensity (Sanchis et al, 2020) and anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over the right frontoparietal network (Luna et al, 2020;Hemmerich et al, 2023), AV has been modulated by caffeine intake (Sanchis et al, 2020) and fatigue due to ∼6 h of extensive testing (Feltmate et al, 2020). Critically, different event-related potentials have been observed for vigilance components in the same task period; whereas EV loss was associated with changes in P3 and slow-positivity in centroparietal regions, AV loss was associated with changes in N1 and P2 in occipital regions (Luna et al, 2023).…”