Resting theta activity is associated with specific coding levels in event‐related theta activity during conflict monitoring

Abstract

Brain electrical activity in the theta frequency band is essential for cognitive control (e.g., during conflict monitoring), but is also evident in the resting state. The link between resting state theta activity and its relevance for theta-related neural mechanisms during cognitive control is still undetermined. Yet, theoretical considerations suggest that there may be a connection. To examine the link between resting state theta activity and conflict-related theta activity, we combined temporal EEG signal decomposition methods with time-frequency decomposition and beamforming methods in N = 86 healthy participants. Results indicate that resting state theta activity is closely associated with the strength of conflict-related neural activity at the level of ERPs and total theta power (consisting of phase-locked and nonphaselocked aspects of theta activity). The data reveal that resting state theta activity is related to a specific aspect of conflict-related theta activity, mainly in superior frontal regions and in the supplemental motor area (SMA, BA6) in particular. The signal decomposition showed that only stimulus-related, but not motor-response-related coding levels in the EEG signal and the event-related total theta activity were associated with resting theta activity. This specificity of effects may explain why the association between resting state theta activity and overt conflict monitoring performance may not be as strong as often assumed. The results suggest that resting state theta activity is particularly important to consider for input integration processes during cognitive control.

Resting-state theta activity is linked to information content-specific coding levels during response inhibition

“…EEG theta oscillations during cognitive control tasks may reflect input integration processes that lead to the detection of the need for cognitive control 15 , 34 . This may be possible because cognitive control-related EEG theta activity originates in cortical layers 2 and 3 14 , 15 , which yield a cellular architecture ideally suited to filter, amplify and integrate information 51 , 52 .…”

“…To measure the participants’ resting theta activity, we used the same setup as reported in previous studies 21 , 34 . We asked the participants to relax for two minutes with their eyes open while looking at a computer screen.…”

The interplay of resting and inhibitory control‐related theta‐band activity depends on age

“…Furthermore, the Go/Nogo task does not allow to disentangle whether the increased theta activity during Nogo trials is related to the alarm/surprise signal or to inhibitory control per se. However, recent findings on a different aspect of cognitive control (i.e., conflict monitoring) have shown that resting theta activity is specifically related to stimulus‐related, but not to response‐related processes (Pscherer et al, 2020 ), which supports the concept that theta activity acts as alarm/surprise signal or facilitates the processing of such signals.…”

“…The participants' resting theta activity was assessed using the same setup as reported in a previous study (Bluschke, Broschwitz, Kohl, Roessner, & Beste, 2016 ; Pscherer et al, 2019 ; Pscherer et al, 2020 ), based on the same electronic devices and the same data recording system (BrainVision Recorder by Brain Products Inc.) as the setup for assessing the task‐related EEG (see Section 2.5 ). For this purpose, subjects were asked to relax with their eyes open for a 2‐min time interval while focusing on a PC screen.…”

“…Interestingly, the power of such inhibition‐related theta activity decreases from childhood to young adulthood (Liu et al, 2014 ), suggesting age‐related effects on oscillatory activity central for inhibitory control (but see Marek et al ( 2018 ) for controversial findings on this). Recent findings from various cognitive control domains including response inhibition show that event‐related theta and resting‐state theta are correlated (Pscherer et al, 2019 ; Pscherer et al, 2020 ). Importantly, especially for task‐related theta activity age‐related modulations have been shown (Tafuro, Ambrosini, Puccioni, & Vallesi, 2019 ).…”