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Abstract Daily life is filled with sequences of multiple tasks, each with their own relevant perceptual input. Working memory needs to dissociate representations that drive attention towards currently relevant information from prospective representations that are needed for future tasks, but that until then should be prevented from guiding attention. Yet, little is known about how the brain initiates and controls such sequential prioritization of selection. In the current study we recorded EEG while subjects remembered a color as the target template for one of two sequential search tasks, thus making it either currently relevant (when it was the target for the first search) or prospectively relevant (when it was the target for the second search) prior to the task sequence. Using time-frequency specific linear classifiers, we were able to predict the priority status (current versus prospective) of the memory representation from multivariate patterns of delta (2–4 Hz) and non-lateralized alpha power (8–14 Hz) during both delay periods. The delta band was only transiently involved when initializing the priority status at the start of the first delay, or when switching priority during the second delay, which we interpret as reflecting the momentary top-down control over prioritization. In contrast, alpha power decoding was based on a more stable pattern of activity that generalized across time both within and between delay periods, which we interpret as reflecting a difference in the prioritized memory representations themselves. Taken together, we reveal the involvement of a complex, distributed and dynamic spatiotemporal landscape of frequency-specific oscillatory activity in controlling prioritization of information within working memory. Highlights • MVPA of EEG oscillatory signals dissociates current from future perceptual tasks • Current versus future status can be decoded during the delay prior to the tasks • Status decoding is reflected specifically in oscillatory delta and alpha band activity • Spatial pattern of activity underlying status decoding is complex and distributed • MVPA more sensitive than univariate measures to study higher order brain states [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Cognitive control processes refer to the ability to flexibly adapt one's thoughts and actions in the pursuit of an internal goal. Task preparation is a central aspect of cognitive control and has generally been studied using explicitly cued task-switching paradigms. Over the last decade, numerous fMRI studies have identified a fronto-parietal network to exhibit greater activity during the preparation of task switches than during the preparation of task repetitions, which is assumed to reflect endogenous cognitive control processes. There is, however, a huge variability in preparatory switch-specific brain activity reported in the imaging literature on task-switching. One factor that might explain this heterogeneity is the difference in switch probability across studies. In the current fMRI study, we examined which preparation-related cognitive control areas are susceptible to such contextual differences by manipulating the switch probability within subjects. In the low switch probability (30% switch trials) blocks, we found the frequently observed switch-related preparatory activation in fronto-parietal areas. In the high switch probability (50% switch trials) blocks, however, only part of these areas (more particularly the (pre-) SMA, extending into the dorsal ACC and the superior parietal lobule) showed higher activation in switch compared to repeat trials. The activation levels in the other areas (the lateral prefrontal cortex, inferior parietal lobule and middle temporal gyrus) were very similar for switch and repeat trials. Our results suggest a functional dissociation within the cognitive control network with some brain areas being sensitive to the switch probability context while others are not. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: To isolate the neural correlates for task rule activation from those related to general task preparation, the effect of a cue explicitly specifying the S–R correspondences (rule-cue) was contrasted with the effects of a cue specifying only the task to performed (task-cue). While the task-cue provides merely information about the type of task, the rule-cue is explicit about both the task type and the task rule (i.e., the set of S–R correspondences). The rule-cue was expected to activate the task rule more efficiently in the preparation period (prior to target presentation); by contrast, in the task-cue condition, part of the task rule activation was expected to be postponed into the task execution period (following the presentation of the target). In an event-related fMRI experiment, we found the right anterior and middle parts of the middle frontal and superior frontal gyri, the right inferior frontal junction, the pre-SMA, as well as the right superior and inferior parietal lobes to show larger activation elicited by the rule-cue than by the task-cue prior to target presentation. Conversely, the results revealed larger activations in these regions in the task-cue than in the rule-cue condition during the task execution period. In summary, this study identified some of the neural correlates of task rule activation and showed that these are a subset of the general task preparation network. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]