Functional indexes of reactive cognitive control: ERPs in cued go/no‐go tasks

Abstract

We aimed to determine the functional meaning of latent (hidden) components decomposed from ERPs, in the context of a go/no-go paradigm. To accomplish this, we used a new group blind source separation method, based on joint diagonalization of covariance matrices of ERPs. Four variants of a frequently used go/no-go paradigm were designed, in which operations of reactive cognitive control, such as conflict detection and action inhibition, were independently manipulated. The results showed that a latent component, generated in the anterior cingulate cortex, induced N2/P3 fluctuation only in conditions in which the prepotent model was violated, and thus can be associated with conflict detection operations. In contrast, the two latent components generated in the vicinity of the central sulcus induced P3-like fluctuations in conditions in which the prepared action was suppressed, and thus can be associated with action inhibition operations. The advantages and limitations of the new blind source separation method in relation to ERP research are also discussed.

The Effect of Background Music on Inhibitory Functions: An ERP Study

“…Before the start of the experiment, the task was practiced by the participants. The VCPT was presented using the software PsyTask ( Kropotov et al, 2016 , 2017 ).…”

“…In such a task, participants are instructed to execute a response to specific stimuli (Go) and to withhold the response (NoGo) if other stimuli are presented. A variant of that task is the so-called and frequently used visual continuous performance task (VCPT) ( Kropotov et al, 2011 , 2016 , 2017 ; Meier et al, 2012 ; Kropotov and Ponomarev, 2015 ).…”

“…The earlier subcomponent is usually associated with turning one’s attention to significant or non-expected events, whereas the latter seems to reflect working memory processes ( Folstein and Van Petten, 2008 ). In a more general view, the P3 represents motor and/or action inhibition ( Enriquez-Geppert et al, 2010 ; Kropotov et al, 2016 , 2017 ).…”

Testing the influence of musical expertise on novel word learning across the lifespan using a cross-sectional approach in children, young adults and older adults

“…The first result that deserves to be mentioned is that older adult MUS demonstrated significantly larger N200 amplitudes in response to unrelated compared to related words. Albeit the fact that the N200 component is susceptible to various factors, like for example attention (Patel & Azzam, 2005) and cognitive control mechanisms (Kropotov, Ponomarev, Pronina, & Jäncke, 2017;Kropotov, Ponomarev, Tereshchenko, Müller, & Jäncke, 2016), this component has previously been described as a robust marker of phonological processing and categorization (Connolly & Phillips, 1994;Friedrich & Friederici, 2008). Accordingly, the reduced N200 amplitudes we observed in MUS in response to related compared to unrelated words are thought to reflect phonological priming mechanisms that originated from a pre-activation of the target words and their respective phonological properties in short-term memory while seeing the pictures (i.e., always presented first).…”

MAO-A Phenotype Effects Response Sensitivity and the Parietal Old/New Effect during Recognition Memory

“…Enge et al ( 2011 ) show decreased N2 ERP amplitude for the High MAO-A group during the n-back task. The N2 ERP is associated with increased cognitive control (Folstein and Van Petten, 2008 ; Enge et al, 2011 ; Pires et al, 2014 ; Kropotov et al, 2017 ) suggesting the High MAO-A group does not engage cognitive control during the n-back task as strongly as Low MAO-A individuals. When combined with the faster RTs and decreased late frontal old/new effect seen in our study, these results may suggest the High MAO-A group engages less control during source memory.…”