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This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PID2019-111187GB-I00 to M.R., and IJC2019-040208-I to C.G.G) , the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska Curie (Ref. 835767, to C.G.G.) , and the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports (FPU17/01627 to A.S.) . The open access charge was funded by the University of Granada and the CBUA., Verbal instructions allow fast and optimal implementation of novel behaviors. Previous research has shown that different control-related variables structure neural activity in frontoparietal regions during the encoding of novel instructed tasks. However, it is uncertain whether different task goals modulate the organizing effect of these variables. In this study, we investigated whether the neural encoding of three task-relevant variables (dimension integration, response set complexity and target category) is modulated by implementation and memorization demands. To do so, we combined functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), an instruction-following paradigm and multivariate analyses. We addressed how and where distributed activity patterns encoded the instructions' variables and the impact of the implementation and memorization demands on the fidelity of these representations. We further explored the nature of the neural code underpinning this process. Our results reveal, first, that the content of to-be-implemented and to-bememorized instructions is represented in overlapping brain regions, flexibly using a common neural code across tasks. Importantly, they also suggest that preparing to implement the instructions increases the decodability of task-relevant information in frontoparietal areas, in comparison with memorization demands. Overall, our work emphasizes both similarities and differences in task coding under the two contextual demands. These findings qualify the previous understanding of novel instruction processing, suggesting that representing task attributes in a generalizable code, together with the increase in encoding fidelity induced by the implementation goals, could be key mechanisms for proactive control in novel scenarios., Spanish Government PID2019-111187GB-I00 IJC2019-040208-I, European Commission 835767, Spanish Government FPU17/01627, University of Granada

Since emotions and regulatory control are relevant for decision-making, their circadian fluctuation should influence the outcome of such decisions, but this question has been rarely addressed. A review of the literature suggests that the evidence regarding circadian synchrony effects (better performance at optimal vs. non-optimal times of day according to chronotype) on decision-making is mixed, likely due to the use of different approaches to estimate chronotype. The current experiment studied economic decision-making as a function of both chronotype and the time of day when decisions are made. The influence of chronotype (Morning-type: N = 28 vs. Evening-type: N = 30) and time of day (8 am vs. 10 pm) on decision-making was measured by the acceptance rate of unfair and fair offers in the Ultimatum Game, and the event-related potentials time-locked to such offers. Subjective affect (PANAS), and appraisal of emotional images (IAPS) were also measured. Chronotype was estimated through questionnaires (MEQ, rMEQ, MCTQ) and the circadian rhythm of wrist temperature. Synchrony effects were found for both wrist temperature and subjective affect, but not for behavioral performance. Morning-types showed earlier phases of circadian rhythms in temperature, reported better sleep quality, more positive affective balance, accepted more unfair offers, and their frontal P200 potential was attenuated as compared to Evening-types in the Ultimatum Game. Acceptance rate of unfair offers correlated with the chronotype measured by questionnaires (positive correlation with rMEQ and MEQ scores, and negative correlation with Midsleep time in workdays -MSWsc from MCTQ) but not with midsleep time estimated through wrist temperature. Finally, participants who accepted more unfair offers later judged positive IAPS stimuli as more pleasant. We did not observe a synchrony effect in the Ultimatum Game, but morningness was related to rational decision-making as indexed by increased acceptance of unfair offers. Since morning-types show higher emotional regulation and positive mood than evening-types, it is possible that unfair offers did not elicit negative emotions as intense in morning-types as in evening-types, making it easier for them to accept.Abbreviations: ACC: anterior cingulate cortex; ANOVA: analysis of variance; BART: Balloon Analogue Risk Task; DLPFC: dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; EEG: electroencephalography; IAPS: International Affective Picture System; ICA: Independent component analysis; KSS: Karolinska Sleepiness Scale; LPP: Late Positive Potential; M: mean; MCTQ: Munich Chronotype Questionnaire; MEQ: Morningness Eveningness Questionnaire; MFN: Medial Frontal Negativity; MSWsc: midsleep time for working days corrected for sleep debt; MSFsc: midsleep time for free days corrected for sleep debt; N: number of participants; PANAS: Positive and Negative Affect Schedule; PSQI: Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index; PVT: Psychomotor Vigilance Task; rMEQ: reduced Morningness Eveningness Questionnaire; RNA: Ribonucleic acid; RT: reaction time; SAM: Self-Assessment Manikin; SD: standard deviation; UG: Ultimatum Game.

A central challenge in cognitive neuroscience is to understand the neural mechanisms that underlie the capacity to control our behavior according to internal goals. Flanker tasks, which require responding to stimuli surrounded by distracters that trigger incompatible action tendencies, are frequently used to measure this conflict. Even though the interference generated in these situations has been broadly studied, multivariate analysis techniques can shed new light into the underlying neural mechanisms. The current study is an initial approximation to adapt an interference Flanker paradigm embedded in a Demand-Selection Task (DST) to a format that allows measuring concurrent high-density electroencephalography (EEG). We used multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) to decode conflict-related electrophysiological markers associated with congruent or incongruent target events in a time-frequency resolved way. Our results replicate findings obtained with other analysis approaches and offer new information regarding the dynamics of the underlying mechanisms, which show signs of reinstantiation. Our findings, some of which could not have been obtained with classic analytical strategies, open novel avenues of research.

The success of humans in novel environments is partially supported by our ability to implement new task procedures via instructions. This complex skill has been associated with the activity of control-related brain areas. Current models link fronto-parietal and a cingulo-opercular networks with transient and sustained modes of cognitive control, based on observations during repetitive task settings or rest (Dosenbach et al. 2008). The current study extends this dual model to novel instructed tasks. We employed a mixed design and an instruction-following task to extract phasic and tonic brain signals associated with the encoding and implementation of novel verbal rules. We also performed a representation similarity analysis to capture consistency in task-set encoding within trial epochs. Our findings show that both networks are involved while following novel instructions: transiently, during the implementation of the instruction, and in a sustained fashion, across novel trials blocks. Moreover, the multivariate results showed that task representations in the cingulo-opercular network were more stable than in the fronto-parietal one. Our data extend the dual model of cognitive control to novel demanding situations, highlighting the high flexibility of control-related regions in adopting different temporal profiles.

The use of Multi-Voxel Pattern Analysis (MVPA) has increased considerably in recent functional magnetic resonance imaging studies. A crucial step consists in the choice of methods for the estimation of responses and their statistical significance. However, a systematic comparison of these and their adequacy to predominant experimental design is missing.In the current study, we compared three pattern estimation methods: Least-Squares Unitary (LSU), based on run-wise estimation, Least-Squares All (LSA) and Least-Squares Separate (LSS), which rely on trial-wise estimation. We compared the efficiency of these methods in an experiment where sustained activity had to be isolated from zero-duration events as well as in a block-design approach and in an event-related design. We evaluated the sensitivity of the t-test in comparison with two non-parametric methods based on permutation testing: one proposed in Stelzer et al. (2013), equivalent to performing a permutation in each voxel separately and the Threshold-Free Cluster Enhancement (Smith and Nichols, 2009).LSS resulted the most accurate approach to address the large overlap of signal among close events in the event-related designs. We found a larger sensitivity of Stelzer’s method in all settings, especially in the event-related designs, where voxels close to surpass the statistical threshold with the other approaches were now marked as informative regions.Our results provide evidence that LSS is the most accurate approach for unmixing events with different duration and large overlap of signal, consistent with previous studies showing better handling of collinearity in LSS. Moreover, Stelzer’s potentiates this better estimation with its larger sensitivity.

Recent research reveals that when faced with alternative lines of action, humans tend to choose the less cognitively demanding one, suggesting that cognitive control is intrinsically registered as costly. This idea is further supported by studies showing that the exertion of cognitive control evokes negative affective states. Despite extensive evidence for mood-induced modulations on control abilities, the impact of affective states on the avoidance of cognitive demand is still unknown. Across two well-powered experiments, we tested the hypothesis that negative affective states would increase the avoidance of cognitively demanding tasks. Contrary to our expectations, induced affective states did not modulate the avoidance of demand, despite having an effect on task performance and subjective experience. Altogether, our results indicate that there are limits to the effect of affective signals on cognitive control and that such interaction might depend on specific affective and control settings.

Engaging in a demanding activity while holding in mind another task to be performed in the near future requires the maintenance of information about both the currently-active task set and the intended one. However, little is known about how the human brain implements such action plans. While some previous studies have examined the neural representation of current task sets and others have investigated delayed intentions, to date none has examined the representation of current and intended task sets within a single experimental paradigm. In this fMRI study, we examined the neural representation of current and intended task sets, employing sequential classification tasks on human faces. Multivariate decoding analyses showed that current task sets were represented in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and fusiform gyrus (FG), while intended tasks could be decoded from lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC). Importantly, a ventromedial region in PFC/OFC contained information about both current and delayed tasks, although cross-classification between the two types of information was not possible. These results help delineate the neural representations of current and intended task sets, and highlight the importance of ventromedial PFC/OFC for maintaining task-relevant information regardless of when it is needed., This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PSI2016-78236-P to M.R.) and the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports (FPU2014/04272 to P.D.G.).

Prior personal information is highly relevant during social interactions. Such knowledge aids in the prediction of others, and it affects choices even when it is unrelated to actual behaviour. In this investigation, we aimed to study the neural representation of positive and negative personal expectations, how these impact subsequent choices, and the effect of mismatches between expectations and encountered behaviour. We employed functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in combination with a version of the Ultimatum Game (UG) where participants were provided with information about their partners’ moral traits previous to their fair or unfair offers. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed the implication of the supplementary motor area (SMA) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) in the representation of expectations about the partners in the game. Further, these regions also represented the valence of expectations, together with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Importantly, the performance of multivariate classifiers in these clusters correlated with a behavioural choice bias to accept more offers following positive descriptions, highlighting the impact of the valence on the expectations on participants’ economic decisions. Altogether, our results suggest that expectations based on social information guide future interpersonal decisions and that the neural representation of such expectations in the vmPFC is related to their influence on behaviour.

Contains fulltext : 201939.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) Humans and other animals make decisions in order to satisfy their goals. However, it remains unknown how neural circuits compute which of multiple possible goals should be pursued (e.g., when balancing hunger and thirst) and how to combine these signals with estimates of available reward alternatives. Here, humans undergoing fMRI accumulated two distinct assets over a sequence of trials. Financial outcomes depended on the minimum cumulate of either asset, creating a need to maintain "value equilibrium" by redressing any imbalance among the assets. Blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signals in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) tracked the level of imbalance among goals, whereas the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) signaled the level of redress incurred by a choice rather than the overall amount received. These results suggest that a network of medial frontal brain regions compute a value signal that maintains value equilibrium among internal goals. 15 p.

Recent studies highlight the influence of non-conscious information on task-set selection. However, it has not yet been tested whether this influence depends on conscious settings, as some theoretical models propose. In a series of three experiments, we explored whether non-conscious abstract cues could bias choices between a semantic and a perceptual task. In Experiment 1, we observed a non-conscious influence on task-set selection even when perceptual priming and cue-target compound confounds did not apply. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that, under restrictive conditions of visibility, cues only biased task selection when the conscious task-setting mindset led participants to search for information during the time period of the cue. However, this conscious strategy did not modulate the effect found when a subjective measure of consciousness was used. Altogether, our results show that the configuration of the conscious mindset determines the potential bias of non-conscious information on task-set selection.

Humans and other animals accumulate resources, or wealth, by making successive risky decisions. If and how risk attitudes vary with wealth remains an open question. Here humans accumulated reward by accepting or rejecting successive monetary gambles within arbitrarily defined temporal contexts. Risk preferences changed substantially toward risk aversion as reward accumulated within a context, and blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signals in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (PFC) tracked the latent growth of cumulative economic outcomes. Risky behavior was captured by a computational model in which reward prompts an adaptive update to the function that links utilities to choices. These findings can be understood if humans have evolved economic decision policies that fail to maximize overall expected value but reduce variance in cumulative outcomes, thereby ensuring that resources remain above a critical survival threshold.

Decision-making is affected by psychological factors like emotional state or cognitive control, which may also vary with circadian rhythmicity. Here, we tested the influence of chronotype (32 morning-type versus 32 evening-type) and time of day (9 a.m. versus 5 p.m.) on interpersonal decision-making as measured by the Ultimatum Game. Participants had to accept or reject different economic offers proposed by a virtual participant. Acceptance involved distribution of gains as proposed, whereas rejection resulted in no gain for either player. The results of the game showed a deviation from rational performance, as participants usually rejected the unfair offers. This behaviour was similar for both chronotype groups, and in both times of day. This result may reflect the robustness of decision-making strategies across standard circadian phases under ecological conditions. Furthermore, morning-types invested more time than evening-types to respond to high-uncertainty offers. This more cautious decision-making style of morning-types fits with our finding of higher proactive control as compared to evening-types when performing the AX-Continuous Performance Task. In line with the literature on personality traits, our results suggest that morning-types behave with more conscientiousness and less risk-taking than evening-type individuals.

Faces contain certain cues that can be used to infer the intentions of other people and to formulate beliefs about them. The present study explored the extent to which the race of the partners and their emotional facial expressions influenced participants' decision-making in a Trust Game where race and emotional expression had no actual predictive value regarding the partners' reciprocation rate. Behaviourally, participants shared more money with happy than with angry partners. In two separate experiments, electrophysiological results showed an early interaction between race and emotion in the N170 potential and also in the subsequent P200, which suggests inter-dependent processing of those cues in a social context. Overall, our results indicate that racial and emotional cues exert both independent and also interacting effects in the processing of faces in an interpersonal context.

Two sources of information most relevant to guide social decision making are the cooperative tendencies associated with different people and their facial emotional displays. This electrophysiological experiment aimed to study how the use of personal identity and emotional expressions as cues impacts different stages of face processing and their potential isolated or interactive processing. Participants played a modified trust game with 8 different alleged partners, and in separate blocks either the identity or the emotions carried information regarding potential trial outcomes (win or loss). Behaviorally, participants were faster to make decisions based on identity compared to emotional expressions. Also, ignored (nonpredictive) emotions interfered with decisions based on identity in trials where these sources of information conflicted. Electrophysiological results showed that expectations based on emotions modulated processing earlier in time than those based on identity. Whereas emotion modulated the central N1 and VPP potentials, identity judgments heightened the amplitude of the N2 and P3b. In addition, the conflict that ignored emotions generated was reflected on the N170 and P3b potentials. Overall, our results indicate that using identity or emotional cues to predict cooperation tendencies recruits dissociable neural circuits from an early point in time, and that both sources of information generate early and late interactive patterns.

Verbal instructions allow humans to acquire and implement complex novel rules in few seconds. A major question that remains elusive is how the brain represents this information prior to successful task execution. In this experiment, we studied the brain regions involved in representing categorical stimulus information during the encoding of novel instructions, their preparation and also their implementation, as well as the relation of the fidelity of these representations to observable behavior. To do so, we devised a novel instructions paradigm to delimitate these three stages. Using univariate and multivariate analyses of functional magnetic resonance data, our study revealed that the semantic content (faces or letters) of complex novel instructions can be decoded several seconds before the onset of a target, as soon as instructions are encoded. Crucially, the quality of the information represented in domain-general and category-selective regions correlated with subsequent behavioral performance. This suggests that the rapid transformation of novel instructions into coherent behavior is supported by control mechanisms that use available, relevant information about the current rule prior to its execution. In addition, our results highlight the relation between these control processes and others such as prospective memory and maintenance of future intentions.

The dependency of word processing on spare attentional resources has been debated for several decades. Recent research in the study of selective attention has emphasized the role of task load in determining the fate of ignored information. In parallel to behavioral evidence, neuroimaging data show that the activation generated by unattended stimuli is eliminated in task-relevant brain regions during high attentional load tasks. We conducted an fMRI experiment to explore how word encoding proceeds in a high load situation. Participants saw a rapid series of stimuli consisting of overlapping drawings and letter strings (words or nonwords). In different blocks, task instructions directed attention to either the drawings or the letters, and subjects responded to immediate repetition of items in the attended dimension. To look at the effect of attention on word processing, we compared brain activations for words and nonwords under the two attentional conditions. As compared to nonwords, word stimuli drove responses in left frontal, left temporal and parietal areas when letters were attended. However, although the behavioral measures suggested that ignored words were not analyzed when drawings were attended, a comparison of ignored words to ignored nonwords indicated the involvement of several regions including left insula, right cerebellum and bilateral pulvinar. Interestingly, word-specific activations found when attended and ignored words were compared showed no anatomical overlap, suggesting a change in processing pathways for attended and ignored words presented in a high attentional load task.

Selective attention has the potential to enhance the initial processing of objects, their spatial locations, or their constituent features. The present study shows that this capacity to modulate initial stages of processing also applies to linguistic attributes. A cueing paradigm focused attention at different levels of word representations on a trial-by-trial basis to study the time course of attentional modulation on visual word processing by means of a high-density electrophysiology recording system. Attention to different linguistic attributes modulated components related to semantic, phonological, and orthographic stages of word processing. Crucially, the N200, associated with initial stages of orthographic decoding, was enhanced by attention to the letter pattern of words. These results suggest that top-down attention has the capacity to enhance initial perceptual stages of visual word processing and support the flexibility of attention in modulating different levels of information processing depending on task goals.

Motivational biases and spatial attention both modulate neural activity and influence behavioural performance. The time course of motivational bias effects, as well as the relationship between motivation and attention across the time course of information processing, however, are relatively unknown. In the present study, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded whilst individuals performed a modified Posner task, in which cue stimuli indicated the reward stakes of a given trial and the probable spatial location of a subsequent target stimulus. Reaction times (RTs) were sensitive to motivation and to attention, with faster responses produced on valid and on rewarded trials. In addition, motivation modulated neural activity from the visual analysis of stimuli, with an earlier N1 peak for rewarded compared with non-rewarded stimuli. Effects of motivation were relatively independent from those of attention until late cognitive processing and response production, where motivation and attention interacted to enhance P300-like potentials and the lateralised readiness potential (LRP). The results suggest that multiple sources of modulatory influences may exist, with motivation and attention exerting independent influences over early stimulus and cognitive processing, followed by a late interaction allowing the construction of a comprehensive stimulus representation that contains information pertaining to both motivational and spatial expectations.

The existence of differential brain mechanisms of conscious and unconscious processing is a matter of debate nowadays. The present experiment explores whether conscious and unconscious semantic priming in a lexical decision task at a long prime-target stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) correlate with overlapping or different event related potential (ERP) effects. Results show that the N400 effect, which appeared when words were consciously perceived, completely disappeared when primes were masked at a level where the ability of participants to detect the prime was near chance. Instead, a rather different set of ERP effects was found to index unconscious semantic priming. This suggests that the processes at the basis of conscious and unconscious semantic analyses can under some circumstances be rather different. Moreover, our results support the notion that conscious and unconscious processes are at least partially separable in the brain.

This study describes a new methodology-the cold pressor gel test (CPGT)-for delivering an accessible experimental pain stimulus, which is reproducible and safe for functional MRI (fMRI).The cold pressor test was modified to put safety precautions into the CPGT. The material used is cool gelled water with a thickening product, which provides a stable temperature at 0.2 °C. Thirteen women with chronic pelvic pain were scanned using a 3 Tesla (T) MR scanner equipped with a 12-channel head coil. Changes in BOLD activation during cold-induced pain were estimated.The results have demonstrated that gel substances maintain a stable temperature during the experiment, resulting in an insignificant variation. Before the experiment, the mean temperature was 0.2 ± 0.11 °C, and at the end it was 0.7 ± 0.15 °C. The time taken by participants to reach the maximum level of pain during the CPGT was 56.92 ± 11.09 s. The pain intensity during the experiments was 6.92 ± 1.66 on the visual analog scale (VAS). The fMRI analysis showed significant BOLD activation in the main brain regions involved in chronic pain processing.The CPGT is an experimental tool to deliver pain that is easily reproducible, particularly in brain functional imaging studies. Moreover, it is cost-effective, safe, and compatible with fMRI. Magn Reson Med 78:1464-1468, 2017. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Facial displays of emotions can help to infer the mental states of other individuals. However, the expectations we generate on the basis of people's emotions can mismatch their actual behaviour in certain circumstances, which generates conflict. In the present study, we explored the neural mechanisms of emotional conflict during interpersonal interactions. Participants had to accept or reject economic offers made by several partners who displayed emotional expressions. On every trial, a cue informed participants of whether they could trust the emotion of their partner or not. Trustworthy (low-conflict) partners with happy facial expressions were cooperative and those with angry expressions did not cooperate. Untrustworthy (high-conflict) partners, on the other hand, cooperated when their expression was angry and did not cooperate when they displayed a happy emotion. Behavioural responses were faster for trustworthy than for untrustworty partners. High-conflict partners activated the anterior cingulate and the anterior insula. In turn, trustworthy partners were associated with activations in the left precuneus. Our results suggest that the emotion displayed by another person affects our decision-making in social contexts. When emotional expressions are linked to their natural consequences, they engage ToM processes. In contrast, untrustworthy emotional expressions engage conflict-related brain regions.

The goal of the present study was to explore whether endogenous attention can be oriented to different perceptual categories and to examine how these expectations modulate visual stimulus processing. We designed a cueing paradigm that prepared participants, on a trial-by-trial basis, for the most likely stimulus category of the target, which could be either a face or a word. Participants were asked to discriminate the gender of the stimuli, regardless of their category. We measured participants' brain activity by means of a high-density electroencephalographic recording system to investigate the neural correlates of orienting attention to faces and words. As expected, we observed a behavioural facilitation for valid compared to invalid trials. In addition, target expectations influenced stimulus processing at several points in time. Most importantly, attention modulated the lateralized N170 component in a category-specific fashion. These results show that, at least under certain circumstances, orienting endogenous attention to different categories can influence the perceptual stages of face and word visual processing.

The present study explores whether endogenous attention can modulate body perception. A modified version of the Posner paradigm was used to direct participants' attention toward the appearance of distinct body images, which differed only in detailed idiosyncratic features: one's own and another person's hands. Hand stimuli were preceded by symbolic cues that predicted their identity with high probability, which made it possible to compare the processing of expected (valid) and unexpected (invalid) targets. Results revealed that endogenous attention influenced the processing of participants' own hands by speeding participants' responses to valid in contrast to invalid trials. Crucially, no validity effect was found for the hands of another person. These findings cannot be explained in terms of perceptual familiarity, since an optimization of the processing for both familiar and unfamiliar faces by symbolic cues was observed. In light of these results, it is suggested that participants are able to anticipate particular stimuli within the same perceptual category as long as these stimuli appear to be remarkably distinct to them, which is probably the case for particular faces and their own bodies, in contrast to other people's bodies.

How the brain prepares for forthcoming events is a pivotal question in human neuroscience. In the last years, several studies have suggested that expectations of perceiving upcoming stimuli engage relevant perceptual areas. Similarly, some experiments manipulating the task to be performed with targets have also found pre-activations in task-related brain areas. However, the usual configuration of this type of paradigms entails high levels of interference and/or working memory load, together with a small set of target stimuli. We designed a cued task paradigm in which interference was reduced to a minimum, as evidenced by behavioral indices of performance, and that included a high number of targets to avoid their anticipation. This was achieved using a large set of univalent target stimuli preceded by fully valid cues in a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment. We found category-specific patterns of activity in which semantic cues engaged the left inferior frontal gyrus whereas spatial cues preactivated the right superior parietal lobe. Together with functional connectivity analyses, the activation maps showed the specific involvement of semantic and spatial processes upon the presentation of the cues that are coherent with previous literature. Our results thus suggest that even in contexts of low interference that prevent the anticipation of specific targets, our brain takes advantage of current information to deal with upcoming demands.

Orienting attention exogenously to a location can have two different consequences on processing subsequent stimuli appearing at that location: positive (facilitation) at short intervals and negative (inhibition of return) at long ones. In the present experiments, we manipulated the frequency of targets and responses associated with them. Results showed that, even at long SOAs, where IOR is usually observed, facilitation was observed for infrequent targets at the same time that IOR was measured for frequent targets. These results are difficult to explain on the basis of either task set modulation of attentional capture or task set modulation of subsequent orienting processes. In contrast, we offer an explanation by which the different cuing effects can be considered as different manifestations of attentional capture on target processing, depending on the task set.

We investigated the dependence of visual word processes on attention by examining event-related potential (ERP) responses as subjects viewed words while their attention was engaged by a concurrent highly demanding task. We used a paradigm from a previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment [Rees, G., Russel, C., Frith, C. D., & Driver, J. Inattentional blindness vs. inattentional amnesia for fixated but ignored words. Science, 286, 2504–2506, 1999] in which participants attended either to drawings or to overlapping letters (words or nonwords) presented at a fast rate. Although previous fMRI results supported the notion that word processing was obliterated by attention withdrawal, the current electrophysiological results demonstrated that visual words are processed even under conditions in which attentional resources are engaged in a different task that does not involve reading. In two experiments, ERPs for attended words versus nonwords differed in the left frontal, left posterior, and medial scalp locations. However, in contrast to the previous fMRI results, ERPs responded differentially to ignored words and consonant strings in several regions. These results suggest that fMRI and ERPs may have differential sensitivity to some forms of neural activation. Moreover, they provide evidence to restore the notion that the brain analyzes words even when attention is tied to another dimension.

The ability of attention to apply in a flexible manner to several types of information at various stages of processing has been studied extensively. However, the susceptibility of these effects to the nature of the idiosyncratic items being attended is less understood. In the current study, we used symbolic cues to orient the attention of participants to the subsequent appearance of the face of a famous person (the former king of Spain) or an unfamiliar face. These were matched in perceptual characteristics. Behavioral effects showed that face-specific attention optimized response speed in an orthogonal task when the target matched the cue (valid trials) compared to when it did not (invalid trials). According to topographical analyses of the electrophysiological data, the famous and unfamiliar faces engaged dissociable brain circuits in two different temporal windows, from 144 to 300 ms after target processing, and at a later 456-492 ms epoch. In addition, orienting attention to specific faces modulated the perceptual stages reflected in the P1 and N170 potentials but with a different laterality pattern that depended on the familiarity of the faces. Whereas only attention to the famous face enhanced the P1 potential at left posterior electrodes, with no corresponding effect for the unfamiliar face at this stage, the N170 was modulated at left posterior sites for the famous item and at right homologous electrodes for the unfamiliar face. Intermediate processing stages, previously linked to facial identity processing indexed by the P2 and N2 potentials, reflected item familiarity but were not affected by the cueing manipulation. At the P3 level, attention influenced again item processing but did so in an equivalent manner for the famous and unfamiliar face. Our results, showing that identity-specific attention modulates perceptual stages of facial processing at different locations depending on idiosyncratic stimulus familiarity, may inform comparison of studies employing items with different degrees of novelty.

High-density electroencephalographic recordings were used to investigate the level of analysis at which attentional expectations modulate the processing of specific stimuli from the same perceptual category but differentiated in terms of a particular non-perceptual feature: body ownership. We used a task in which colour cues predicted whether a picture of a hand stimulus belonged to the participant or to somebody else. Participants were instructed to respond whether the target was a left or a right hand. Results revealed that the ERP pattern depended on stimulus ownership and attention orienting, which influenced the visual processing of own and someone else’s hands differentially. Larger amplitude for others’ than for own hands was shown at the N1 deflection (at the right hemisphere). Attentional effects were found at the P2 and P3 potentials. The P2 reflected an interaction between stimulus ownership and attentional orienting, due to a larger validity effect for others’ hands. At the P3 level, the data showed a significant validity effect only for self-hand stimuli. In sum, our results suggest that (1) differences as a function of stimulus ownership can be detected at early levels of stimulus processing; (2) endogenous attention can be directed to exemplars within the same category, hand stimuli in this case; (3) the effects of attention are modulated by ownership.

The present commentary addresses the main results obtained in the Butler and Klein [Butler, B. C., & Klein, R. (2009). Inattentional blindness for ignored words: Comparison of explicit and implicit memory tasks. Consciousness and Cognition, 18, 811-819.] study and discusses them in relation to the Perceptual Load Theory of Lavie [Lavie, N. (1995). Perceptual load as a necessary condition for selective attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 21, 451-68.]. The authors claim that the use of implicit indexes of conceptual distractor processing in high-load situations would be an important addition to the load literature, which would benefit the research field regardless of their positive or negative findings.

In the present study we compared the nature of cognitive and affective conflict modulations at different stages of information processing using electroencephalographic recordings. Participants performed a flanker task in which they had to focus on a central word target and indicate its semantic category (cognitive version) or its valence (affective version). Targets were flanked by congruent or incongruent words in both versions. Although tasks were equivalent at the behavioral level, event-related potentials (ERPs) showed common and dissociable cognitive and emotional conflict modulations. At early stages of information processing, both tasks generated parallel sequential conflict effects in the P1 and N170 potentials. Later, the N2 and the first part of the P3 wave were exclusively modulated by cognitive conflict, whereas the last section of the P3 deflection/Late Positive Component (LPC) was only involved in affective current conflict processing. Therefore, the whole data set suggests the existence of early common mechanisms that are equivalent for cognitive and affective materials and later task-specific conflict processing.

The emotions displayed by others can be cues to predict their behavior. Happy expressions are usually linked to positive consequences, whereas angry faces are associated with probable negative outcomes. However, there are situations in which the expectations we generate do not hold. Here, control mechanisms must be put in place. We designed an interpersonal game in which participants received good or bad economic offers from several partners. A cue indicated whether the emotion of their partner could be trusted or not. Trustworthy partners with happy facial expressions were cooperative, and angry partners did not cooperate. Untrustworthy partners cooperated when their expression was angry and did not cooperate when they displayed a happy emotion. Event-Related Potential (ERP) results showed that executive attention already influenced the frontal N1. The brain initially processed emotional expressions regardless of their contextual meaning but by the N300, associated to affective evaluation, emotion was modulated by control mechanisms. Our results suggest a cascade of processing that starts with the instantiation of executive attention, continues by a default processing of emotional features and is then followed by an interaction between executive attention and emotional factors before decision-making and motor stages.

Understanding the role that social cues have on interpersonal choice, and their susceptibility to contextual effects, is of core importance to models of social decision-making. Language, on the other hand, is one of the main means of communication during social interactions in our culture. The present experiments tested whether positive and negative linguistic descriptions of alleged partners in a modified Ultimatum Game biased decisions made to the same set of offers, and whether the contextual uncertainty of the game modulated this biasing effect. The results showed that in an uncertain context, the same offers were accepted with higher probability when they were preceded by positive rather than by negative valenced trait-words. Participants also accepted fair offers with higher probability than unfair offers, but this effect did not interact with the valence of the social descriptive words. In addition, the speed of the decision was affected by valence: acceptance choices were faster when they followed a positive adjective, whereas rejection responses were faster after a negative-valenced word. However, these effects were highly reduced when the uncertainty was eliminated from the game. This suggests that positive and negative relevant social information can bias decisions made to the same pieces of evidence during interpersonal interactions, but that this mainly takes place when the uncertainty associated with the choices is high., Research presented in this paper was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN) through a Ramón y Cajal Research Fellowship granted to MR (ref. RYC-2008-03008).

When preparing to perform a task, the brain settles into task-set states which are relevant for the selection of the appropriate task-rules and stimulus-response mappings. The way this selection takes place within the Language domain is not well understood. We used high-density electrophysiological recordings while participants were engaged in a task in which cues directed their attention to the orthography, phonology or semantics of upcoming target words (or to the shape of novel symbols). To study the specificity of the brain preparatory states to different goals within the language domain, we contrasted the topographical maps associated with the cues for these different tasks, and explored whether the need of task-set reconfiguration modulated this preparatory activity. As a complement to the topographical analyses, we compared the amplitude of the cue-locked ERPs across task conditions. The topographical maps differed only at the end of the epoch. During this time window, each task-cue generated distinct topographical activity, which was also different depending on whether it involved a switch in task-set or not. These results suggest that, when the time of target onset approaches, the generators of anticipatory-biasing brain states for different language tasks vary depending on the nature of the task.