Orchestrating Proactive and Reactive Mechanisms for Filtering Distracting Information: Brain-Behavior Relationships Revealed by a Mixed-Design fMRI Study

Abstract

Given the information overload often imparted to human cognitive-processing systems, suppression of irrelevant and distracting information is essential for successful behavior. Using a hybrid block/event-related fMRI design, we characterized proactive and reactive brain mechanisms for filtering distracting stimuli. Participants performed a flanker task, discriminating the direction of a target arrow in the presence versus absence of congruent or incongruent flanking distracting arrows during either Pure blocks (distracters always absent) or Mixed blocks (distracters on 80% of trials). Each Mixed block had either 20% or 60% incongruent trials. Activations in the dorsal frontoparietal attention network during Mixed versus Pure blocks evidenced proactive (blockwise) recruitment of a distraction-filtering mechanism. Sustained activations in right middle frontal gyrus during 60% Incongruent blocks correlated positively with behavioral indices of distraction-filtering (slowing when distractersmightoccur)andnegativelywithdistraction-relatedbehavioralcosts(incongruentvscongruenttrials),suggestingaroleincoordinating proactive filtering of potential distracters. Event-related analyses showed that incongruent trials elicited greater reactive activations in 20% (vs 60%) Incongruent blocks for counteracting distraction and conflict, including in the insula and anterior cingulate. Context-related effects in occipitoparietal cortex consisted of greater target-evoked activations for distracter-absent trials (central-target-only) in Mixed versus Pure blocks, suggesting enhanced attentional engagement. Functional-localizer analyses in V1/V2/V3 revealed less distracter-processing activity in 60% (vs 20%) Incongruent blocks, presumably reflecting tonic suppression by proactive filtering mechanisms. These results delineate brain mechanisms underlying proactive and reactive filtering of distraction and conflict, and how they are orchestrated depending on distraction probability, thereby aiding task performance.

Foraging Value, Risk Avoidance, and Multiple Control Signals: How the Anterior Cingulate Cortex Controls Value-based Decision-making

“…Although we have cast proactive control as one of several functions of ACC (Kawai et al, 2015), we do not claim that proactive control is solely driven by ACC, as indeed there is evidence that proactive control can be exerted by a network of other regions (Marini et al, 2016;MacDonald, Cohen, Stenger, & Carter, 2000). Perhaps the closest computational model to the PRO-control model is a recent model of dual control processes (Ziegler et al, 2014).…”

“…The PRO-control model provides a new degree of mechanistic clarity to the notions of proactive and reactive control signals, which have been explored both theoretically (Aron, 2011;Braver et al, 2007;De Pisapia & Braver, 2006) and empirically (Marini, Demeter, Roberts, Chelazzi, & Woldorff, 2016;Kawai, Yamada, Sato, Takada, & Matsumoto, 2015). Although we have cast proactive control as one of several functions of ACC (Kawai et al, 2015), we do not claim that proactive control is solely driven by ACC, as indeed there is evidence that proactive control can be exerted by a network of other regions (Marini et al, 2016;MacDonald, Cohen, Stenger, & Carter, 2000).…”

Neuroimaging Intermediate Phenotypes of Executive Control Dysfunction in Schizophrenia

“…These spurious event-salience associations are hypothesized to trigger erroneous cognitive reasoning processes, which result in delusional beliefs and perceptions (139,140). With respect to executive control, there is a potential link between PFC dysfunction and dysregulation of striatal dopamine (141), and it is also potentially relevant that executive control selectively filters and suppresses bottom-up attention responses to salient events and stimuli during task performance (142)(143)(144). Impairment of this suppression could plausibly result in a greater tendency to direct attention to aberrantly salient phenomena, with a corresponding facilitating effect on the resulting pathological cognitive processes.…”

Behavioural Neurology of Personality Disorders: A Bi-dimensional Model

“…Filtering (selective attention): 'Filtering' is the ability to ignore or isolate irrelevant or less relevant distracting data outside of the attention sphere, to permit functioning and processing relevant data and to maximise efficiency [68,[83][84][85].…”

“…However, if ignored or overlooked, it can also clash with the infant's general functioning in the environment and his or her development. reactive, unlike alertness [68].…”