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

Abstract

Resting-state neural activity plays an important role for cognitive control processes.Regarding response inhibition processes, an important facet of cognitive control, especially theta-band activity has been the focus of research. Theoretical considerations suggest that the interrelation of resting and task-related theta activity is subject to maturational effects. To investigate whether the relationship between resting theta activity and task-related theta activity during a response inhibition task changes even in young age, we tested N = 166 healthy participants between 8 and 30 years of age. We found significant correlations between resting and inhibitory controlrelated theta activity as well as behavioral inhibition performance. Importantly, these correlations were moderated by age. The moderation analysis revealed that higher resting theta activity was associated with stronger inhibition-related theta activity in individuals above the age of $10.7 years. The EEG beamforming analysis showed that this activity is associated with superior frontal region function (BA6). The correlation between resting and superior frontal response inhibition-related theta activity became stronger with increasing age. A similar pattern was found for response inhibition performance, albeit only evident from the age of $19.5 years. The results suggest that with increasing age, resting theta activity becomes increasingly important for processing the alarm/surprise signals in superior frontal brain regions during inhibitory control. Possible causes for these developmental changes are discussed.

Type of bilingualism conditions individual differences in the oscillatory dynamics of inhibitory control

“…The first hypothesis anticipated the possibility that the L2 learner group would exhibit increased theta activation whereas, conversely, the HS group might show increased alpha suppression for inhibitory control as a result of the inherent difference in duration (and context) commensurable with bilingual type (DeLuca et al, 2020 ). The logic was as follows: adaptations to control demands (such as those associated with bilingual experience) are predicted to initially manifest in fronto-cortical regions and networks (Grundy et al, 2017 ; Pliatsikas, 2020 ), linked to increased theta band activation in tasks measuring processes related to inhibitory control (Cavanagh and Frank, 2014 ; Duprez et al, 2018 ; Brunetti et al, 2019 ; Pscherer et al, 2021 ). Given this, we might have expected that the shorter duration of bilingual experience associated with the L2 learner group to manifest as greater reliance on fronto-cortical circuits to handle inhibitory control demands, resulting in greater theta band activation.…”

“…Consistently, EEG and magnetoencephalography (MEG) studies have linked power changes in prefrontal theta activity to temporal reorganization of neural networks coinciding with decision points, i.e., action monitoring and selection (Cavanagh et al, 2012). Similarly, a considerable amount of work has found midfrontal theta power and phase synchronization in frontal electrode clusters (ACC and PFC) associated with stimulus conflict detection and response monitoring (Pastötter et al, 2013;Cavanagh and Frank, 2014;Oehrn et al, 2014;Duprez et al, 2018;Brunetti et al, 2019;Pscherer et al, 2021). Although frontal theta appears to be the optimal candidate for regulating and modulating executive control functions, it is not the only one.…”

Electrocorticography to Investigate Age-Related Brain Lateralization on Pediatric Motor Inhibition

“…There was an increasing power ratio of theta oscillation with stronger theta activity in No-Go trials as lower resting-state theta activity (baseline) by age. The observed age-dependent relationship between theta activity and inhibitory control at the neurophysiological and behavioral level may relate to biophysical properties of theta oscillations and their role in coordinating information processing in a network in the maturation process ( 42 , 43 ). Critically, relative to adult populations, our results support the hypothesis that the center of motor inhibition in the pediatric populations is not limited to the right IFG, but rather is a product of bilateral contributions from the IFG ( 20 ).…”

The Effects of Different Theta and Beta Neurofeedback Training Protocols on Cognitive Control in ADHD

“…Overall, these findings support existing knowledge (Pscherer et al, 2019 , 2020 , 2022 ) showing that resting state power carries a different functional relevance than it is the case for task-related oscillatory power and outcomes measured on the behavioural level. This further strongly depends on age and the cognitive function in question (Pscherer et al, 2019 , 2021 ). It is thus not surprising that the pattern of results differs depending on the analysed outcome parameter.…”