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Everyone agrees that feelings and actions are intertwined, but cannot agree how. According to dominant models, actions are directed by estimates of value and these values shape or are shaped by affect. I propose instead that affect is the only form of value that drives actions. Our mind constantly represents potential future states and how they would make us feel. These states collectively form a gradient reflecting feelings we could experience depending on actions we take. Motivated behavior reflects the process of traversing this affective gradient, towards desirable states and away from undesirable ones. This affective gradient hypothesis solves the puzzle of where values and goals come from, and offers a parsimonious account of apparent conflicts between emotion and cognition.

Multiple pathway models propose that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) arises from dysfunction in separate systems comprised of a "cool" or cognitive pathway versus a "hot" or emotional/reward pathway. Interactions between these pathways and the degree of maturation may further determine functional outcomes for adolescents ranging from those diagnosed with ADHD to typical development (TD). We used a latent profile analysis on rating scales and behavioral task performance assessing emotion, irritability, impulsivity, risk-taking, future orientation, and processing speed (PS) to identify subgroups of TD adolescents and adolescents with ADHD (N = 152) based on the hot and cool pathway model. We identified four classes: 1) High-Complex Challenges; 2) Moderate-Mixed Challenges; 3) Non-Emotive Impulsivity; and 4) High Regulation and Control. A multiple pathway model of ADHD is supported with classes differing in degree of emotional lability and irritability, types of impulsivity, and ability to use future consequences to modulate impulsivity and PS. The classes differed regarding functional behavior, with the High-Complex class demonstrating the most severe functional challenges in academic-related functioning. The Moderate-Mixed class also displayed significant functional challenges but with moderate emotional lability and irritability ratings. The Non-Emotive Impulsivity class exhibited low emotionality and low irritability, yet high impulsivity with limited negative functional consequences, and was composed of a mix of ADHD and TD adolescents. Differences between classes suggest ADHD symptomatology may represent both categorical and dimensional differences. Precision health interventions may be more effective in addressing the specific challenges associated with the classes rather than a one-size-fits-all approach to treating ADHD.

Animals, including humans, rely on contextual information to interpret ambiguous stimuli. Impaired context processing is a hallmark of several neuropsychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and addiction. While sex differences in the prevalence and manifestations of these disorders are well established, potential sex differences in context processing remain uncertain. Here, we examined sex differences in the contextual control over cue-evoked reward seeking and its neural correlates, in rats. Male and female rats were trained in a bidirectional occasion-setting preparation in which the validity of two auditory reward-predictive cues was informed by the presence, or absence, of a visual contextual feature (LIGHT: X+/DARK: X-/LIGHT: Y-/DARK: Y+). Females were significantly slower to acquire contextual control over cue-evoked reward seeking. However, once established, the contextual control over behavior was more robust in female rats; it showed less within-session variability (less influence of prior reward) and greater resistance to acute stress. This superior contextual control achieved by females was accompanied by an increased activation of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) compared to males. Critically, these behavioral and neural sex differences were specific to the contextual modulation process and not observed in simple, context-independent, reward prediction tasks. These results indicate a sex-biased trade-off between the speed of acquisition and the robustness of performance in the contextual modulation of cued reward seeking. The different distribution of sexes along the fast learning ↔ steady performance continuum might reflect different levels of engagement of the OFC, and might have implications for our understanding of sex differences in psychiatric disorders.

The fate of deprived sensory cortices (visual regions in the blind and auditory regions in the deaf) exemplifies the extent to which experience can change brain regions. These regions are frequently seen to activate during tasks involving other sensory modalities, leading many authors to infer that these regions have started to process sensory information of other modalities. However, such observations can also imply that these regions are now activating in response to any task event, regardless of the sensory modality. Activating in response to task events, irrespective of the sensory modality involved, is a feature of the multiple-demands (MD) network. This is a set of regions within the frontal and parietal cortices that activate in response to any kind of control demand. Thus, demands as diverse as attention, perceptual difficulty, rule-switching, updating working memory, inhibiting responses, decision-making and difficult arithmetic all activate the same set of regions that are thought to instantiate domain-general cognitive control and underpin fluid intelligence. We investigated whether deprived sensory cortices, or foci within them, become part of the MD network. We tested whether the same foci within the visual regions of the blind and auditory regions of the deaf activated in response to different control demands. We found that control demands related to updating auditory working memory, difficult tactile decisions, time-duration judgments and sensorimotor speed all activated the entire bilateral occipital regions in the blind but not in the sighted. These occipital regions in the blind were the only regions outside the canonical frontoparietal MD regions to show such activation in response to multiple control demands. Furthermore, compared with the sighted, these occipital regions in the blind had higher functional connectivity with frontoparietal MD regions. Early deaf, in contrast, did not activate their auditory regions in response to different control demands, showing that auditory regions do not become MD regions in the deaf. We suggest that visual regions in the blind do not take a new sensory role but become part of the MD network, and this is not a response of all deprived sensory cortices but a feature unique to the visual regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Executive control of movement enables inhibiting impulsive responses critical for successful navigation of the environment. Circuits mediating stop commands involve prefrontal and basal ganglia structures with fMRI evidence demonstrating increased activity during response inhibition in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC)—often ascribed to maintaining task attentional demands. Using direct intraoperative cortical recordings in male and female human subjects, we investigated oscillatory dynamics along the rostral-caudal axis of dlPFC during a modified Go/No-go task, probing components of both proactive and reactive motor control. We assessed whether cognitive control is topographically organized along this axis and observed that low-frequency power increased prominently in mid-rostral dlPFC when inhibiting and delaying responses. These findings provide evidence for a key role for mid-rostral dlPFC low-frequency oscillations in sculpting motor control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to notice and reflect on distressing internal experiences from an objective perspective, often called psychological decentering, has been posited to be protective against mental health difficulties. However, little is known about how this skill relates to age across adolescence, its relationship with mental health, and how it may impact key domains such as affective executive control and social cognition. This study analysed a pre-existing dataset including mental health measures and cognitive tasks, administered to adolescents in Greater London and Cambridge (mean age (SD) = 14.4 (1.77) years, N = 553). A self-report index of decentering based on available questionnaire items in the dataset was developed. Multiple linear regression was used to examine associations between decentering and mental health, affective executive control (measured using an affective Stroop Task, affective Working Memory Task, and affective Sustained Attention to Response Task) and social cognition. Higher decentering was significantly associated with lower depression and anxiety scores and higher psychological wellbeing. Results did not indicate significant relationships between decentering, affective executive control and social cognition. Further research is needed to discover cognitive mechanisms associated with this process, which could allow for optimisation of existing psychological therapy and reveal new avenues of intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies examining conflict processing within the context of a color-word Stroop task have focused on both stimulus and response conflicts. However, it has been unclear whether conflict can emerge independently of stimulus conflict. In this study, a novel arrow-gaze mental-rotation Stroop task was introduced to explore the interplay between conflict processing and mental rotation. A modelling approach was utilized to provide a process-level account of the findings. The results of our Stroop task indicate that conflict can emerge from mental rotation in the absence of stimulus conflict. The strength of this imagery conflict effect decreases and even reverses as mental rotation angles increase. Additionally, it was observed that participants responded more quickly and with greater accuracy to small rather than large face orientations. A comparison of three conflict diffusion models—the diffusion model for conflict tasks (DMC), the dual-stage two-phase model (DSTP), and the shrinking spotlight model (SSP)—yielded consistent support for the DSTP over the DMC and SSP in the majority of instances. The DSTP account of the experimental results revealed an increased nondecision time with increasing mental rotation, a reduction in interference from incompatible stimuli, and an improved drift rate in response selection phase, which suggests enhanced cognitive control. The findings from the model-based analysis provide evidence for a novel interaction between cognitive control and mental rotation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To examine the manifestation of cognitive control deficit of children with different levels of hyperactivity, an "at risk" dimension for ADHD. Method: A group of children with high hyperactivity (N = 40) and another group of children with low levels of hyperactivity (N = 38) performed a modified stop-signal anticipation task, a revised Go/NoGo task, and the AX-continuous performance test (AX-CPT). Results: Children with higher levels of hyperactivity displayed: (1) significantly prolonged stop signal reaction time (SSRT) in the modified stop-signal anticipation task; (2) no notable differences in commission errors in the revised Go/NoGo task; (3) increased reaction time (RT) in stop-signal task and Go/NoGo task with increased probabilities of stop or NoGo signal; and (4) positive proactive behavioral index scores in AX-CPT. Conclusion: The results suggested that children with heightened hyperactivity exhibited impaired reactive control, especially for responses already underway, but preserved proactive control. Further studies concerning these children are warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depression in adolescence is common worldwide, with the burden being highest in low- and middle-income countries. This study assessed the efficacy of in-person Memory Specificity Training (MeST) and computerized MeST (c-MeST) as cognitive training programs aimed at addressing depression among Iranian adolescents. A secondary aim was to evaluate the efficacy of MeST and c-MeST on autobiographical memory specificity, emotion regulation and cognitive control. Ninety Iranian male adolescents (aged 13–18 years) with depression were randomly assigned to three groups; MeST group (n = 30), c-MeST group (n = 30) and the non-active control group (n = 30). Participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory-II, Autobiographical Memory Test, Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and Stroop Color and Word Test. The groups underwent either MeST and c-MeST. All the assessments were re-conducted after the intervention (post-intervention) and at 1-month post-intervention (follow-up). The in-person MeST group exhibited significantly higher autobiographical memory specificity at post-intervention and follow-up compared to the c-MeST group. Both groups demonstrated significantly lower levels of depression at post-intervention and follow-up. Both groups showed improvements in emotion regulation and cognitive control, which were found to mediate improvements in depression symptomatology. c-MeST and MeST appear promising brief interventions for the treatment of depression among adolescents in Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) poses a significant global health challenge. Traditional management strategies often face high relapse rates, leading to a need for innovative approaches. Mindfulness-based relapse prevention (MBRP) has emerged as a promising intervention to enhance cognitive control, reduce cue-related craving and improve interoceptive processing. Neuroimaging studies suggest that mindfulness training can modulate brain networks associated with these factors, potentially improving treatment outcomes for AUD. Neuroimaging studies suggest that mindfulness training can modulate brain networks linked to these brain functions, potentially improving treatment outcomes for AUD. However, it is unclear how MBRP links to neurophysiological measures such as frontal midline theta oscillations (FMΘ) and whether the beneficial effects of MBRP can be increased by enhancing FMΘ. Here, we will use two different forms of neuromodulation to target and enhance these oscillations, and evaluate their impact on the effectiveness of MBRP. Methods: This study will employ a four-arm randomized controlled trial to evaluate the synergistic effects of MBRP augmented with transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) or closed-loop amplitude-modulated transcranial alternating current stimulation (CLAM-tACS) on cognitive control, cue reactivity and interoceptive processing in AUD patients. Participants will undergo six weekly group MBRP sessions and daily individual mindfulness practices. Assessments will include an inhibition task, cue-induced craving task, and heartbeat discrimination task, alongside heart rate variability and 32-channel EEG recordings. Participants will be assessed pre and post treatment, with a three-month follow-up to evaluate long-term effects on abstinence and alcohol consumption. Discussion: This study will not only elucidate the causal link between FMΘ and efficacy of MBRP, but contribute to a better understanding of how combined psychological and neuromodulation interventions can improve treatment outcomes for AUD, potentially leading to more effective therapeutic strategies. This study also seeks to explore individual differences in response to treatment, which could inform future approaches to AUD management. Trial registration: This study received approval by the Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin Institutional Review Board (EA1/030/23, 10.11.2023). It was registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT06308484). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deception often occurs in response to a preceding cue (e.g., a precarious question) alerting us about the need to subsequently lie. Here, we simulate this process by adapting a previously established paradigm of intentionally false responding, now instructing participants about the need for deception (vs. truthful responses) by means of a simple cue occurring before each response‐relevant target. We analyzed event‐related brain potentials (ERPs) as well as cortical oscillations recorded from the scalp. In an experimental study (N = 44), we show that a cue signaling the need for deception involves increased attentional selection (P2, P3a, P3b). Moreover, in the period following the cue and leading up to the target, ERP and oscillatory signatures of anticipation and preparation (Contingent Negative Variation, alpha suppression) were found to be increased during trials requiring a deceptive as compared to a truthful response. Additionally, we replicated earlier findings that target processing involves enhanced motivated attention toward words requiring a deceptive response (LPC). Moreover, a signature of integration effort and semantic inhibition (N400) was observed to be larger for words to which responses have to be intentionally false as compared to those to which responses must be truthful. Our findings support the view of the involvement of a series of basic cognitive processes (especially attention and cognitive control) when responses are deliberately wrong instead of right. Moreover, preceding cues signaling the subsequent need for lying already elicit attentional and preparatory mechanisms facilitating the cognitive operations necessary for later successful lying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Research indicates that cognitive control is compromised in individuals with internet gaming disorder (IGD). However, the neural mechanisms behind it are still unclear. This study aims to investigate alterations in resting-state brain networks in adolescents with IGD and the potential neurobiological mechanisms underlying cognitive dysfunction. Materials and methods: A total of 44 adolescent IGD subjects (male/female: 38/ 6) and 50 healthy controls (male/female: 40/10) were enrolled. Participants underwent demographic assessments, Young's Internet Addiction Scale, Barratt Impulsiveness Scale 11 Chinese Revised Version, the Chinese Adolescents' Maladaptive Cognitions Scale, exploratory eye movement tests, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). FMRI data were analyzed using the GIFT software for independent component analysis, focusing on functional connectivity within and between resting-state brain networks. Results: In comparison to the control group, impulsivity in adolescent IGD subjects showed a positive correlation with the severity of IGD (r=0.6350, p < 0.001), linked to impairments in the Executive Control Network (ECN) and a decrease in functional connectivity between the Salience Network (SN) and ECN (r=0.4307, p=0.0021; r=-0.5147, p=0.0034). Decreased resting state activity of the dorsal attention network (DAN) was associated with attentional dysregulation of IGD in adolescents (r=0.4071, p=0.0017), and ECN increased functional connectivity with DAN. The degree of IGD was positively correlated with enhanced functional connectivity between the ECN and DAN (r=0.4283, p=0.0037). Conclusions: This research demonstrates that changes in the ECN and DAN correlate with heightened impulsivity and attentional deficits in adolescents with IGD. The interaction between cognitive control disorders and resting-state brain networks in adolescent IGD is related. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its importance in different occupational and everyday contexts, vigilance, typically defined as the capacity to sustain attention over time, is remarkably limited. What explains these limits? Two theories have been proposed. The Overload Theory states that being vigilant consumes limited information‐processing resources; when depleted, task performance degrades. The Underload Theory states that motivation to perform vigilance tasks declines over time, thereby prompting attentional shifts and hindering performance. We highlight some conceptual and empirical problems for both theories and propose an alternative: the Strategic Allocation Theory. For the Strategic Allocation Theory, performance on vigilance tasks optimizes as a function of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, including metacognitive factors such as the expected value of effort and the expected value of planning. Limited capacities must be deployed across task sets to maximize expected reward. The observed limits of vigilance reflect changes in the perceived value of, among other things, sustaining attention to a task rather than attending to something else. Drawing from recent computational theories of cognitive control and meta‐reasoning, we argue that the Strategic Allocation Theory explains more phenomena related to vigilance behavior than other theories, including self‐report data. Finally, we outline some of the testable predictions the theory makes across several experimental paradigms.This article is categorized under: Philosophy > Foundations of Cognitive Science Psychology > Attention [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher cardiorespiratory fitness has been associated with improved cognitive control in preadolescent children, with various studies highlighting related brain health benefits. This cross-sectional study aimed to provide novel insights into the fitness-cognition relationship by investigating task-related changes in effective connectivity within two brain networks involved in cognitive control: the cingulo-opercular and fronto-parietal networks. Twenty-four higher-fit and twenty-four lower-fit preadolescent children completed a modified flanker task that modulated inhibitory control demand while their EEG and task performance were concurrently recorded. Effective connectivity for correct trials in the theta band was estimated using directed transfer function. The results indicate that children with higher fitness levels demonstrated greater connectivity in specific directions within the cingulo-opercular network (average effect size, d = 0.72). Brain-behavior correlations demonstrated a positive association between the majority of these connections and general task accuracy, which was also higher in higher fit children (average correlation coefficient, ρ = 0.34). The findings further support a positive relationship between fitness and cognitive performance in children. EEG findings offer novel insights into the potential brain mechanisms underlying the fitness-cognition relationship. The study suggests that increased task-related connectivity within the cingulo-opercular network may mediate the cognitive benefits associated with higher fitness levels in preadolescent children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive flexibility represents the capacity to switch among different mental schemes, providing an adaptive advantage to a changing environment. The neural underpinnings of this executive function have been deeply studied in humans through fMRI, showing that the left inferior frontal cortex (IFC) and the left inferior parietal lobule (IPL) are crucial. Here, we investigated the inhibitory– excitatory balance in these regions by means of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA+) and glutamate + glutamine (Glx), measured with magnetic resonance spectroscopy, during a cognitive flexibility task and its relationship with the performance level and the local task-induced blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) response in 40 young (18–35 years; 26 female) and 40 older (18–35 years; 21 female) human adults. As the IFC and the IPL are richly connected regions, we also examined whole-brain effects associated with their local metabolic activity. Results did not show absolute metabolic modulations associated with flexibility performance, but the performance level was related to the direction of metabolic modulation in the IPL with opposite patterns in young and older individuals. The individual inhibitory–excitatory balance modulation showed an inverse relationship with the local BOLD response in the IPL. Finally, the modulation of inhibitory–excitatory balance in IPL was related to whole-brain effects only in older individuals. These findings show disparities in the metabolic mechanisms underlying cognitive flexibility in young and older adults and their association with the performance level and BOLD response. Such metabolic differences are likely to play a role in executive functioning during aging and specifically in cognitive flexibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As we interpret language moment by moment, we often encounter conflicting cues in the input that create incompatible representations of sentence meaning, which must be promptly resolved. Although ample evidence suggests that cognitive control aids in the resolution of such conflict, the methods commonly used to assess cognitive control's involvement in language comprehension provide limited information about the time course of its engagement. Here, we show that neural oscillatory activity in the theta-band (∼3–8 Hz), which is associated with cognitive control in nonlinguistic tasks like Stroop and Flanker, provides a real-time index of cognitive control during language processing. We conducted time-frequency analyses of four electroencephalogram data sets, and consistently observed that increased theta-band power was elicited by various kinds of linguistic conflict. Moreover, increases in the degree of conflict within a sentence produced greater increases in theta activity. These effects emerged as early as 300 ms from the onset of the initiating event, indicating rapid cognitive-control recruitment during sentence processing in response to conflicting representations. Crucially, the effect patterns could not be ascribed to processing difficulty that is not due to conflict (e.g., semantic implausibility was neither necessary nor sufficient to elicit theta activity). We suggest that neural oscillations in the theta-band offer a reliable way to test specific hypotheses about cognitive-control engagement during real-time language comprehension. Public Significance Statement: The results reported in this work provide the clearest evidence available that theta-band oscillations index cognitive control demands during language comprehension, thus extending previous findings that theta-band activity is elicited by representational conflict in cognitive tasks like Flanker and Stroop. Our findings support the growing body of work indicating that cognitive control plays a core role in ordinary language comprehension and provide a novel application of an established electrophysiological measure to study the real-time dynamics of cognitive control operations during sentence processing. The theta effects observed in this work, which appeared rapidly upon encountering the linguistic conflict, corroborate psycholinguistic models predicting that conflict during comprehension must be resolved quickly for successful communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peer presence influences risk‐taking behavior, particularly in adolescence. Based on the dual system model, this event‐related potential study examined whether and how the presence of a peer displayed a preference for risky behavior would increase adolescents' risk‐taking by disrupting their cognitive control processes in either emotional or non‐emotional contexts. A sample of 106 adolescents (17–19 years of age) completed two Stoop tasks and a Balloon Analog Risk Task under three peer presence conditions. Results revealed that compared to other conditions, the presence of a risk‐averse peer caused adolescents to make safer decisions through improving their conflict monitoring (more negative N200‐diff), whereas a risk‐preference peer's presence led adolescents to more risky decisions through disrupting their conflict resolution (more positive N450‐diff) but they were only observed on the Emotional Stroop task. These findings suggest that different peer presence contexts could increase or decrease adolescents' risk‐taking behaviors by influencing their cognitive control under an emotional context rather than in a non‐emotional context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive control facilitates the resolution of representational conflict during language comprehension when incompatible interpretations vie for selection due to linguistic ambiguity. However, it remains unknown if control is required only when conflict arises between multiple, strongly supported interpretations, or even when there is substantial evidence for one interpretation and competition from weak alternatives. We investigated referential ambiguities such as "She will eat the red ... ", in which listeners temporarily consider multiple red objects as potential referents, including those that are partially consistent with the input (e.g. heart satisfies "red" but not "eat"). We introduce a remote visual-world paradigm to track listeners' interpretive commitments via webcam, combined with a cross-task adaptation manipulation of cognitive-control engagement. We replicated subtle competition effects in referential ambiguity but found that upregulated cognitive control did not modulate competition. This suggests that a competing representation must reach a certain activation threshold before conflict arises, requiring cognitive control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study examined executive functioning and episodic future thinking among Iranian women with breast cancer. Method: We recruited 40 healthy female community volunteers and 80 females with breast cancer (either currently undergoing chemotherapy n = 40 or not undergoing chemotherapy n = 40). Participants were assessed using cognitive tasks that assessed executive functioning and episodic future thinking and a measure of cancer-related fatigue. Results: Both cancer groups had poorer performance than controls on all measures of executive functioning and episodic future thinking. Those undergoing chemotherapy had poorer performance on all measures of executive functioning than those not undergoing chemotherapy. Cross-sectional mediation analyses revealed cancer-related fatigue had a significant mediator role between cancer group and executive functioning and episodic future thinking. Conclusion: Those with breast cancer, particularly those undergoing chemotherapy, may be experiencing cognitive difficulties. These cognitive concerns should be considered by health teams as addressing these impairments may assist in improving quality of life and treatment adherence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotion dysregulation (ED) is a vulnerability factor for affective disorders that may originate from deficits in cognitive control (CC). Although measures of ED are often designed to assess trait-like tendencies, the extent to which such measures capture a time-varying (TV) or state-like construct versus a time-invariant (TI) or trait-like personality characteristic is unclear. The link between the TV and TI components of ED and CC is also unclear. In a 6-wave, 5-month longitudinal study, community participants (n = 1281) completed the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS-16), a commonly used measure of ED and measures of CC. A latent variable (trait-state-occasion) model showed that the proportion of TI factor variance (.80) was greater than the TV factor variance (.19). Although TV factor stability was significant, the coefficients were small in magnitude. Furthermore, regression weights for the ED TI factor (average $\beta$ β = −.62) were significant and larger than those for the TV factor (average $\beta$ β = −.10) in predicting latent CC at each of the six-time points. These findings suggest that ED, as assessed by the DERS-16, is largely TI and this TI component is more strongly linked to CC than the TV component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adapting to the ever‐changing demands of the environment requires a complex interplay between cognitive‐affective, neuronal, and autonomic processes. Vagally mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV) is positively associated with both cognitive‐affective functioning and prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity. Accordingly, the Neurovisceral Integration Model has posited a shared role of the PFC in the regulation of cognitive‐affective processes and autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity. While there are numerous correlational findings in this regard, no study so far has investigated whether the manipulation of PFC activity induces changes in vmHRV and cognitive‐affective processing in an inter‐dependent manner. In a sample of 64 participants, we examined the effects of continuous (cTBS; n = 21) and intermittent theta‐burst stimulation (iTBS; n = 20) compared to sham stimulation (n = 23) over the left dorsolateral PFC (dlPFC) on vmHRV and cognitive‐affective processing within an emotional stop‐signal task (ESST). Our results revealed that both resting vmHRV and vmHRV reactivity predicted cognitive‐affective processing. Furthermore, we found a dampening effect of cTBS on resting and on‐task vmHRV, as well as an enhancing effect of iTBS on ESST performance. Our results show no direct association between vmHRV changes and ESST performance alterations following stimulation. We interpret our results in the light of a hierarchical model of neurovisceral integration, suggesting a dynamical situation‐dependent recruitment of higher‐order cortical areas like the dlPFC in the regulation of the ANS. In conclusion, our results highlight the complex interplay between PFC activity, autonomic regulation, and cognitive‐affective processing, emphasizing the need for further research to understand the causal dynamics of the underlying neural mechanisms. Our study represents the first attempt to use repetitive transcranial magnet stimulation (rTMS) to test the relationship between prefrontal activity, vagally mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV) and cognitive‐affective processing, suggested by the Neurovisceral Integration Model. While we did not find hypothesized links between changes in vmHRV and cognitive‐affective processing induced by rTMS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), our results indicate flexible recruitment of higher‐order cortical areas, such as the left dlPFC in autonomic regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infants rely on developing attention skills to identify relevant stimuli in their environments. Although caregivers are socially rewarding and a critical source of information, they are also one of many stimuli that compete for infants' attention. Young infants preferentially hold attention on caregiver faces, but it is unknown whether they also preferentially orient to caregivers and the extent to which these attention biases reflect reward‐based attention mechanisms. To address these questions, we measured 4‐ to 10‐month‐old infants' (N = 64) frequency of orienting and duration of looking to caregiver and stranger faces within multi‐item arrays. We also assessed whether infants' attention to these faces related to individual differences in Surgency, an indirect index of reward sensitivity. Although infants did not show biased attention to caregiver versus stranger faces at the group level, infants were increasingly biased to orient to stranger faces with age and infants with higher Surgency scores showed more robust attention orienting and attention holding biases to caregiver faces. These effects varied based on the selective attention demands of the task, suggesting that infants' attention biases to caregiver faces may reflect both developing attention control skills and reward‐based attention mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While overweight or obesity are thought to affect over 70% of the US population, the effects of adiposity on neurocognitive efficiency and stability remain unclear. Intra‐individual variability or trial‐to‐trial variability (IIV) could provide insights into the influence of adiposity on neurophysiological stability. However, previous work examining the association between adiposity and IIV of cognitive outcomes is limited. Thus, this study examined the association between whole‐body fat (%BF) and central tendency and IIV metrics of behavioral performance and event‐related potentials. Adults (n = 320; 19–64 yrs) completed the Flanker task to assess attentional inhibition with concurrent electroencephalogram recordings to examine the N2 and P3b components. In addition to central tendency outcomes typically reported (i.e., mean accuracy and reaction time [RT]), dispersion outcomes (e.g., standard deviation [SD] of RT, P3b latency, N2 latency, etc.) were also extracted. Upon controlling for age and sex, %BF was inversely associated with (congruent: β = −.18, p = .016; incongruent: β = −.23, p < .001) accuracy. Increasing %BF was related to greater RT SD (congruent: β = .13, p = .032; incongruent: β = .23, p < .001). Furthermore, increased %BF was associated with slower P3b latencies (congruent: β = .21, p = .003; incongruent: β = .18, p = .010), and greater incongruent N2 (β = .16, p = .017) and P3b (β = .16, p = .025) latency SD. These findings suggest adiposity exerts a generalized negative influence on attentional inhibition for both measures of central tendency and dispersion across behavioral and neuroelectric indices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ability to focus attentional resources on a task is a necessary component of healthy cognitive regulation, which is necessary for normal emotional and cognitive processes, while avoiding distractions that aren't related to the task at hand. However, anxiety may impair the inhibitory and transfer functions of attention. Therefore, in order to explore the modulation of social anxiety on the effect of emotion on cognitive control, individuals with high social anxiety (HSA) and low social anxiety (LSA) completed the emotional Stroop task with the neutral stimuli presented first, followed by the social threat stimuli. The HSA participants exhibited a slower response to threats than neutral words, whereas there was no emotional effect for the LSA participants. Event-Related Potential (ERP) data revealed that N2 was more negative elicited by neutral words than threat ones in the LSA, but not significant in HSA. Time–Frequency Representation (TFR) data showed enhanced theta synchronization elicited by neutral words than threat words in the LSA only. These findings provided new electrophysiological correlates for social anxiety modulating the effect of emotion on cognitive control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently available data show mixed results as to whether the processing of emotional information has the same characteristics in the native (L1) as in the second language (L2) of bilinguals. We conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment to shed light on the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying bilinguals' emotional processing in L1 and L2 during an emotional interference task (i.e., the Emotional Stroop Task - EST). Our sample comprised proficient Italian-English bilinguals who learned their L2 during childhood mainly in instructional rather than immersive contexts. In spite of no detectable behavioural effects, we found stronger brain activations for L1 versus L2 emotional words in sectors of the posteromedial cortex involved in attention modulation, episodic memory, and affective processing. While fMRI findings are consistent with the hypothesis of a stronger emotional resonance when processing words in a native language, our overall pattern of results points to the different sensitivity of behavioural and hemodynamic responses to emotional information in the two languages of bilingual speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptive behaviors require the ability to resolve conflicting information caused by the processing of incompatible sensory inputs. Prominent theories of attention have posited that early selective attention helps mitigate cognitive interference caused by conflicting sensory information by facilitating the processing of task-relevant sensory inputs and filtering out behaviorally irrelevant information. Surprisingly, many recent studies that investigated the role of early selective attention on conflict mitigation have failed to provide positive evidence. Here, we examined changes in the selectivity of early visuospatial attention in male and female human subjects performing an attention-cueing Eriksen flanker task, where they discriminated the shape of a visual target surrounded by congruent or incongruent distractors. We used the inverted encoding model to reconstruct spatial representations of visual selective attention from the topographical patterns of amplitude modulations in alpha band oscillations in scalp EEG (∼8-12 Hz). We found that the fidelity of the alpha-based spatial reconstruction was significantly higher in the incongruent compared with the congruent condition. Importantly, these conflict-related modulations in the reconstruction fidelity occurred at a much earlier time window than those of the lateralized posterior event-related potentials associated with target selection and distractor suppression processes, as well as conflict-related modulations in the frontocentral negative-going wave and midline-frontal theta oscillations (∼3-7 Hz), thought to track executive control functions. Taken together, our data suggest that conflict resolution is supported by the cascade of neural processes underlying early selective visuospatial attention and frontal executive functions that unfold over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, we investigated the influence of performance-contingent reward prospects on task performance across three visual conflict tasks with manual responses (Experiments 1 & 2: Simon and Stroop tasks; Experiment 3: Simon and Eriksen flanker task) using block-wise (Experiment 1) and trial-wise (Experiments 2 & 3) manipulations to signal the possibility of reward. Across all experiments, task performance (in reaction time and/or error rates) generally improved in reward compared with no-reward conditions in each conflict task. However, there was, if any, little evidence that the reward manipulation modulated the size of the mean conflict effects, and there was also no evidence for conflict-specific effects of reward when controlling for time-varying fluctuations in conflict processing via distributional analyses (delta plots). Thus, the results provide no evidence for conflict-specific accounts and instead favor performance-general accounts, where reward anticipation leads to overall performance improvements without affecting conflict effects. We discuss possible implications for how proactive control might modulate the interplay between target- and distractor-processing in conflict tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of the current work was to assess the age sensitivity of a novel battery of cool and hot Executive Function (EF) tasks developed for the middle childhood period: the Executive Brain Battery (EBB). To this end, we carried out a first study in which the EBB was administered to six age groups ranging from 6 to 11. Additionally, in a second study, we compared children at the end of middle childhood (age 11 years) and adult performance in the EBB. Results showed that tasks included in the EBB were suitable for all age groups, with more age-related changes being found in cool than hot EF tasks. Moreover, at the end of middle childhood, children reach an adult-like performance in most of these cool and hot tasks. The present findings extend previous research suggesting that cool and hot EFs exhibit different patterns of age-related growth in middle childhood. Additionally, the EEB could become a useful tool for research on EFs during middle childhood that could be adapted for a wide range of populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated whether, during visual word recognition, semantic processing is modulated by attentional control mechanisms directed at matching semantic information with task-relevant goals. In previous research, we analyzed the semantic Stroop interference as a function of response latency (delta-plot analyses) and found that this phenomenon mainly occurs in the slowest responses. Here, we investigated whether this pattern is due to reduced ability to proactively maintain the task goal in these slowest trials. In two pairs of experiments, participants completed two semantic Stroop tasks: a classic semantic Stroop task (Experiment 1A and 2A) and a semantic Stroop task combined with an n-back task (Experiment 1B and 2B). The two pairs of experiments only differed in the trial pace, which was slightly faster in Experiments 2A and 2B than in Experiments 1A and 1B. By taxing the executive control system, the n-back task was expected to hinder proactive control. Delta-plot analyses of the semantic Stroop task replicated the enhanced effect in the slowest responses, but only under sufficient time pressure. Combining the semantic Stroop task with the n-back task produced a change in the distributional profile of semantic Stroop interference, which we ascribe to a general difficulty in the use of proactive control. Our findings suggest that semantic Stroop interference is, to some extent, dependent on the available executive resources, while also being sensitive to subtle variations in task conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies have considered bilingualism's impact on cognitive development within the sociolinguistic and cultural context of the immigrant communities where bilingualism is commonly practiced. In the United States, many Mexican-origin bilingual youth practice their bilingual skills by brokering (i.e. translating/interpreting between languages) for their immigrant parents who have low English proficiency. Meanwhile, these youth may also experience discrimination in their daily life. The present study focuses on Mexican-origin bilingual youth brokers (N = 334) in order to examine how discriminatory experiences (i.e. daily and ethnic discrimination) and bilingual brokering experiences captured by profiles are related to cognitive control performance (i.e. attentional control and inhibition). We found no significant direct influence of either bilingual broker profiles or discriminatory experiences on cognitive control. However, the associations between discriminatory experiences and cognitive control performance depended upon brokering experiences. Specifically, greater discrimination was associated with lower cognitive control performance among moderate brokers (with moderate bilingual experiences), but the association was attenuated among efficacious brokers (with positive bilingual experiences). Findings highlight the need to consider the sociolinguistic heterogeneity of both discriminatory experiences and language use when investigating cognitive control performance in bilinguals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An underlying hypothesis for broad transfer from cognitive training is that the regional brain signals engaged during the training task are related to the transfer tasks. However, it is unclear whether the brain activations elicited from a specific cognitive task can generalize to performance of other tasks, esp. in normal aging where cognitive training holds much promise. In this large dual‐site functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we aimed to characterize the neurobehavioral correlates of task‐switching in normal aging and examine whether the task‐switching‐related fMRI‐blood‐oxygen‐level‐dependent (BOLD) signals, engaged during varieties of cognitive control, generalize to other tasks of executive control and general cognition. We therefore used a hybrid blocked and event‐related fMRI task‐switching paradigm to investigate brain regions associated with multiple types of cognitive control on 129 non‐demented older adults (65–85 years). This large dataset provided a unique opportunity for a data‐driven partial least squares–correlation approach to investigate the generalizability of multiple fMRI‐BOLD signals associated with task‐switching costs to other tasks of executive control, general cognition, and demographic characteristics. While some fMRI signals generalized beyond the scanned task, others did not. Results indicate right middle frontal brain activation as detrimental to task‐switching performance, whereas inferior frontal and caudate activations were related to faster processing speed during the fMRI task‐switching, but activations of these regions did not predict performance on other tasks of executive control or general cognition. However, BOLD signals from the right lateral occipital cortex engaged during the fMRI task positively predicted performance on a working memory updating task, and BOLD signals from the left post‐central gyrus that were disengaged during the fMRI task were related to slower processing speed in the task as well as to lower general cognition. Together, these results suggest generalizability of these BOLD signals beyond the scanned task. The findings also provided evidence for the general slowing hypothesis of aging as most variance in the data were explained by low processing speed and global low BOLD signal in older age. As processing speed shared variance with task‐switching and other executive control tasks, it might be a possible basis of generalizability between these tasks. Additional results support the dedifferentiation hypothesis of brain aging, as right middle frontal activations predicted poorer task‐switching performance. Overall, we observed that the BOLD signals related to the fMRI task not only generalize to the performance of other executive control tasks, but unique brain predictors of out‐of‐scanner performance can be identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During our everyday life, the constant flow of information is divided into discrete events, a process conceptualized in Event Segmentation Theory (EST). How people perform event segmentation and the resulting granularity of encapsulated segments likely depends on their metacontrol style. Yet, the underlying neural mechanisms remain undetermined. The current study examines how the metacontrol style affects event segmentation through the analysis of EEG data using multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) and source localization analysis. We instructed two groups of healthy participants to either segment a movie as fine‐grained as possible (fine‐grain group) or provided no such instruction (free‐segmentation group). The fine‐grain group showed more segments and a higher likelihood to set event boundaries upon scene changes, which supports the notion that cognitive control influences segmentation granularity. On a neural level, representational dynamics were decodable 400 ms prior to the decision to close a segment and open a new one, and especially fronto‐polar regions (BA10) were associated with this representational dynamic. Groups differed in their use of this representational dynamics to guide behavior and there was a higher sensitivity to incoming information in the Fine‐grain group. Moreover, a higher likelihood to set event boundaries was reflected by activity increases in the insular cortex suggesting an increased monitoring of potentially relevant upcoming events. The study connects the EST with the metacontrol framework and relates these to overarching neural concepts of prefrontal cortex function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-regulation (SR) difficulties are implicated in a wide range of disorders which develop in childhood, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiance disorder (ODD), anxiety and depression. However, the integration of the existing research evidence is challenging because of varying terminology and the wide range of tasks used, as well as the heterogeneity and comorbidity within and across diagnostic categories. The current study used the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework to guide the examination of different SR processes in young children showing a wide range of symptomatology. Children (aged 4–8) referred by teachers for moderate-to-high conduct, hyperactivity and/or emotional problems at school (assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) subscales; n = 212), and children in SDQ typical ranges (n = 30) completed computerised cognitive control and decision-making tasks. Parents completed questionnaires to assess ADHD, ODD, anxiety and depression symptoms (n = 191). Compared to children with no teacher-reported difficulties, those with moderate-to-high problems showed poorer visuomotor control and decision-making. A factor analysis revealed that task variables adhered to RDoC dimensions and predicted variance in specific disorders: difficulties in cognitive control predicted ADHD symptoms, low reward-seeking was associated with depression and high reward-seeking was associated with ODD. This study highlights how the assessment of cognitive processes positioned within the RDoC framework can inform our understanding of disorder-specific and transdiagnostic difficulties in SR which are associated with diverse clinical symptoms in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers in psychology and neuroscience want to know whether conflict and control scale up. Conflict and control mechanisms share many similarities across different levels of analysis. However, empirical evidence does currently not support a unified perspective on action control. We identify two major challenges for theoretical integration: a vertical challenge that requires conflict at different levels of abstraction to be linked, and a horizontal challenge that requires control of conflict at different points in time to be linked. We present a new integrative framework in which we propose that the difference between conflicts can best be understood along the dimension of complexity (i.e., amount of information). We propose that differences in conflict complexity go together with specific costs and benefits and that a normative account of hierarchical conflict control needs to take into account both. People regularly encounter various types of conflict. Here, we ask if, and, if so, how, different types of conflict, from lab-based Stroop conflicts to everyday-life self-control or moral conflicts, are related to one other. We present a framework that assumes that action–goal representations are hierarchically organized, ranging from concrete actions to abstract goals. The framework's key assumption is that conflicts involving more abstract goals (e.g., self-control/moral conflict) are embedded in a more complex action space; thus, to resolve such conflicts, people need to consider more associated goals and actions. We discuss how differences in complexity impact conflict resolution mechanisms and the costs/benefits of resolving conflicts. Altogether, we offer a new way to conceptualize and analyze conflict regulation across different domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies highlight non-relay functions of the thalamus. The mediodorsal thalamus regulates recurrent dynamics in the prefrontal cortex. Coding properties of the thalamus and cortex appear distinct and complementary. Trans-thalamic computations may support executive function via Bayesian principles. Frontal thalamic function across scales is consistent with a regularization perspective. The brain exhibits a remarkable ability to learn and execute context-appropriate behaviors. How it achieves such flexibility, without sacrificing learning efficiency, is an important open question. Neuroscience, psychology, and engineering suggest that reusing and repurposing computations are part of the answer. Here, we review evidence that thalamocortical architectures may have evolved to facilitate these objectives of flexibility and efficiency by coordinating distributed computations. Recent work suggests that distributed prefrontal cortical networks compute with flexible codes, and that the mediodorsal thalamus provides regularization to promote efficient reuse. Thalamocortical interactions resemble hierarchical Bayesian computations, and their network implementation can be related to existing gating, synchronization, and hub theories of thalamic function. By reviewing recent findings and providing a novel synthesis, we highlight key research horizons integrating computation, cognition, and systems neuroscience. The brain exhibits a remarkable ability to learn and execute context-appropriate behaviors. How it achieves such flexibility, without sacrificing learning efficiency, is an important open question. Neuroscience, psychology, and engineering suggest that reusing and repurposing computations are part of the answer. Here, we review evidence that thalamocortical architectures may have evolved to facilitate these objectives of flexibility and efficiency by coordinating distributed computations. Recent work suggests that distributed prefrontal cortical networks compute with flexible codes, whereas thalamus regularizes them to promote efficient reuse. Thalamocortical interactions resemble hierarchical Bayesian computations, and both observations can be related to existing gating, synchronization, and hub theories of thalamic function. Reviewing and synthesizing these points highlights key research horizons integrating computation, cognition, and systems neuroscience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous work has indicated that individual differences in cognitive performance can be predicted by characteristics of resting state oscillations, such as individual peak alpha frequency (IAF). Although IAF has previously been correlated with cognitive functions, such as memory, attention, or mental speed, its link to cognitive conflict processing remains unexplored. The current work investigated the relationship between IAF and inhibitory cognitive control in two well‐established conflict tasks, Stroop and Navon task, while also controlling for alpha power, theta power, and the 1/f offset of aperiodic broadband activity. In Bayesian analyses on a large sample of 127 healthy participants, we found substantial evidence against the assumption that IAF predicts individual abilities to spontaneously exert cognitive control. Similarly, our findings yielded substantial evidence against links between cognitive control and resting state power in the alpha and theta bands or between cognitive control and aperiodic 1/f offset. In sum, our results challenge frameworks suggesting that an individual's ability to spontaneously engage attentional control networks may be mirrored in resting state EEG characteristics. In the first work investigating the relationship between individual peak alpha frequency (IAF) and two classical conflict tasks (Stroop and Navon task), we demonstrate that individual differences in cognitive control are not related to IAF nor to other oscillatory or aperiodic aspects of the resting state EEG signal. We complement and challenge previous findings suggesting IAF as a neurophysiological indicator of general human performance functions and cognitive control specifically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vagally mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV) at resting state has been associated to cognitive functions dependent on cognitive control, such as memory. However, little is known about the phasic interaction between cognitive and autonomic control. In a pre‐registered within‐between‐subject designed experiment, the potential of vmHRV biofeedback to simultaneously stimulate vmHRV during memory processing and cognitive control over long‐term memory was tested, along with investigating psychophysiological association. 71 young healthy adults completed (twice) a false memory task in virtual reality. Immediately before memory encoding and retrieval, participants practiced either vmHRV biofeedback or a control breathing exercise. Cognitive control over long‐term memory was assessed as the confidence toward false memories and the capability to discriminate them from true memories. Resting‐state vmHRV before each test and phasic vmHRV during memory encoding and retrieval were measured as the root mean square differences (RMSSD) in the heart period. vmHRV biofeedback had neither an immediate effect on measures of cognitive control over long‐term memory nor on phasic RMSSD. Moreover, neither resting‐state nor phasic vmHRV correlated to the cognitive scores. Consequently, the utility of HRV biofeedback as a psychophysiological stimulation tool and a link between vmHRV and cognitive control over long‐term memory could not be verified. Exploratory analyses revealed that baseline shift in parasympathetic activity confounded the psychophysiological association. Future directions are provided that could shed light on the relationship between cognition and vmHRV. The results add a nuanced view on the psychophysiological relationship between autonomic and cognitive control that contradicts previous research. We provide evidence that HRV state measures assessed at baseline or during memory processing do not associate with cognitive control over long‐term memory assessed as false memory production. Moreover, short HRV biofeedback proved not to be a viable HRV stimulation method to study the heart–brain interaction. We uncovered influencing factors on the psychophysiological relationship and propose a new analysis approach important for future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive processes deal with contradictory demands in social contexts. On the one hand, social interactions imply a demand for cooperation, which requires processing social signals, and on the other, demands for selective attention require ignoring irrelevant signals, to avoid overload. We created a task with a humanoid robot displaying irrelevant social signals, imposing conflicting demands on selective attention. Participants interacted with the robot as a team (high social demand; n = 23) or a passive co‐actor (low social demand; n = 19). We observed that theta oscillations indexed conflict processing of social signals. Subsequently, alpha oscillations were sensitive to the conflicting social signals and the mode of interaction. These findings suggest that brains have distinct mechanisms for dealing with the complexity of social interaction and that these mechanisms are activated differently depending on the mode of the interaction. Thus, how we process environmental stimuli depends on the beliefs held regarding our social context. We investigated the impact of social interaction on cognition, specifically the conflicting demands of social signals while suppressing irrelevant information using a human–robot handover task. Our results revealed that these demands interactively influence neural processes, and we identified the timing of this interaction. These findings have implications for sociocognitive neuroscience, illustrating how the brain handles complex social interactions. They also have relevance for robotics, emphasizing the negative impact of irrelevant robot behaviors on human cognitive processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The parietal P300 wave of event‐related potentials (ERPs) has been associated with various psychological operations in numerous laboratory tasks. This study aims to decompose the P3 wave of ERPs into subcomponents and link them with behavioral parameters, such as the strength of stimulus–response (S‐R) links and GO/NOGO responses. EEGs (31 channels), referenced to linked ears, were recorded from 172 healthy adults (107 women) who participated in two cued GO/NOGO tasks, where the strength of S‐R links was manipulated through instructions. P300 waves were observed in active conditions in response to cues, GO/NOGO stimuli, and in passive conditions when no manual response was required. Utilizing a combination of current source density transformation and blind source separation methods, we decomposed the P300 wave into two distinct components, purportedly originating from different parts of the parietal lobules. The amplitude of the parietal midline component (with current sources around Pz) closely mirrored the strength of the S‐R link across proactive, reactive, and passive conditions. The amplitude of the lateral parietal component (with current sources around P3 and P4) resembled the push–pull activity of the output nuclei of the basal ganglia in action selection‐inhibition operations. These findings provide insights into the neural mechanisms underlying action selection processes and the reactivation of S‐R links. We aimed to associate subcomponents of P3 waves in event‐related potentials with behavioral parameters in cued GO/NOGO tasks. The parietal midline component was shown to reflect the strength of stimulus–response (S‐R) links across proactive, reactive, and passive conditions. The lateral parietal component mirrored basal ganglia activity in action selection. These results illuminate neural mechanisms for S‐R links and action selection operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to find the right balance between more persistent and more flexible cognitive‐control styles is known as "metacontrol." Recent findings suggest a relevance of aperiodic EEG activity and task conditions that are likely to elicit a specific metacontrol style. Here we investigated whether individual differences in aperiodic EEG activity obtained off‐task (during resting state) predict individual cognitive‐control styles under task conditions that pose different demands on metacontrol. We analyzed EEG resting‐state data, task‐EEG, and behavioral outcomes from a sample of N = 65 healthy participants performing a Go/Nogo task. We examined aperiodic activity as indicator of "neural noise" in the EEG power spectrum, and participants were assigned to a high‐noise or low‐noise group according to a median split of the exponents obtained for resting state. We found that off‐task aperiodic exponents predicted different cognitive‐control styles in Go and Nogo conditions: Overall, aperiodic exponents were higher (i.e., noise was lower) in the low‐noise group, who however showed no difference between Go and Nogo trials, whereas the high‐noise group exhibited significant noise reduction in the more persistence‐heavy Nogo condition. This suggests that trait‐like biases determine the default cognitive‐control style, which however can be overwritten or compensated for under challenging task demands. We suggest that aperiodic activity in EEG signals represents valid indicators of highly dynamic arbitration between metacontrol styles, representing the brain's capability to reorganize itself and adapt its neural activity patterns to changing environmental conditions. Via the FOOOF toolbox which calculates aperiodic exponents as indicators of "neural noise," we were able to theoretically link aperiodic EEG activity to cognitive‐control styles. We found that in demanding conditions, the modulation of aperiodic activity is more driven by stimuli and demand‐signaling information than by trait‐like biases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children with a history of behaviorally inhibited (BI) temperament face a heightened risk for anxiety disorders and often use control strategies that are less planful. Although these relations have been observed concurrently in early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence, few studies leverage longitudinal data to examine long-term prospective relations between cognitive control and anxiety. Using longitudinal data from 149 adolescents (55% female; from predominantly White middle-class families), we assessed temperament in toddlerhood and cognitive control and anxiety at 4, 12, 15, and 18 years of age. At age 4, separate measures of task switching and inhibitory control were obtained via the Dimensional Change Card Sort and Stroop tasks, respectively. At 12, 15, and 18 years of age, planful control was assessed with the AX-Continuous Performance Test, and anxiety symptoms were assessed via self-report. Growth curve models revealed that children with greater inhibitory control at age 4, regardless of BI status, experienced a sharper increase in anxiety symptoms across adolescence. Children with heightened BI during early childhood displayed lower levels of planful control at age 12, but experienced a more rapid improvement in these skills across adolescence. Children with greater task switching ability at age 4 displayed higher levels of planful control at age 12, but experienced a smaller increase in these skills across adolescence. Finally, children's growth rate for anxiety was unrelated to their growth rate for planful control. These findings reveal that early-life temperament, cognitive control, and anxiety remain interconnected across development, from toddlerhood to at least late adolescence. Public Significance Statement: This study indicates that temperament and executive function in early childhood predict the future development of anxiety and executive function across adolescence. However, changes in anxiety across adolescence did not relate to changes in executive function across the same period. Together, results suggest that early interventions may have the best chance of improving adolescents' anxiety trajectories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Stroop task is a seminal paradigm in experimental psychology, so much that various variants of the classical color–word version have been proposed. Here we offer a methodological review of them to emphasize the importance of designing methodologically rigorous Stroop tasks. This is not an end by itself, but it is fundamental to achieve adequate measurement validity, which is currently hindered by methodological heterogeneity and limitations. Among the several Stroop task variants in the literature, our methodological overview shows that the spatial Stroop task is not only a potentially methodologically adequate variant, which can thus assure measuring the Stroop effect with the required validity, but it might even allow researchers to overcome some of the methodological limitations of the classical paradigm due to its use of verbal stimuli. We thus focused on the spatial Stroop tasks in the literature to verify whether they really exploit such inherent potentiality. However, we show that this was generally not the case because only a few of them (1) are purely spatial, (2) ensure both all the three types of conflicts/facilitations (at the stimulus, response, and task levels) and the dimensional overlaps considered fundamental for yielding a complete Stroop effect according to the multiple loci account and Kornblum's theory, respectively, and (3) controlled for low-level binding and priming effects that could bias the estimated Stroop effect. Based on these methodological considerations, we present some examples of spatial Stroop tasks that, in our view, satisfy such requirements and, thus, ensure producing complete Stroop effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Frontal and parietal brain regions are involved in attentional control and prospective memory. It is debated, however, whether increased or decreased activity in those regions is beneficial for older adults’ task performance. We therefore aimed to systematically modulate activity in those regions using high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation. We included n = 106 healthy adults (60–75 years old, 58% female) in a randomized, double-blind, and sham-controlled study. We evaluated task performance twice in the laboratory and at home and additionally assessed heart rates. Participants received cathodal, anodal, or sham stimulation of the left or right inferior frontal lobe, or the right superior parietal lobe (1 mA for 20 min). Performance improved at visit two in laboratory tasks but declined in at-home tasks. Stimulation did not modulate performance change in laboratory tasks but prevented decline in at home-tasks. Heart rates increased at visit two but only when right inferior frontal lobe activity was inhibited. Repeating a task seems more beneficial than stimulation for laboratory tasks. This might be different for at-home tasks. Inhibiting right frontal brain function increases heart rates, possibly due to a modulation of the frontal-vagal brain-heart axis.

Abstract Depression in adolescence is common worldwide, with the burden being highest in low- and middle-income countries. This study assessed the efficacy of in-person Memory Specificity Training (MeST) and computerized MeST (c-MeST) as cognitive training programs aimed at addressing depression among Iranian adolescents. A secondary aim was to evaluate the efficacy of MeST and c-MeST on autobiographical memory specificity, emotion regulation and cognitive control. Ninety Iranian male adolescents (aged 13–18 years) with depression were randomly assigned to three groups; MeST group (n = 30), c-MeST group (n = 30) and the non-active control group (n = 30). Participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory-II, Autobiographical Memory Test, Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and Stroop Color and Word Test. The groups underwent either MeST and c-MeST. All the assessments were re-conducted after the intervention (post-intervention) and at 1-month post-intervention (follow-up). The in-person MeST group exhibited significantly higher autobiographical memory specificity at post-intervention and follow-up compared to the c-MeST group. Both groups demonstrated significantly lower levels of depression at post-intervention and follow-up. Both groups showed improvements in emotion regulation and cognitive control, which were found to mediate improvements in depression symptomatology. c-MeST and MeST appear promising brief interventions for the treatment of depression among adolescents in Iran.

Abstract Background Alcohol use disorder (AUD) poses a significant global health challenge. Traditional management strategies often face high relapse rates, leading to a need for innovative approaches. Mindfulness-based relapse prevention (MBRP) has emerged as a promising intervention to enhance cognitive control, reduce cue-related craving and improve interoceptive processing. Neuroimaging studies suggest that mindfulness training can modulate brain networks associated with these factors, potentially improving treatment outcomes for AUD. Neuroimaging studies suggest that mindfulness training can modulate brain networks linked to these brain functions, potentially improving treatment outcomes for AUD. However, it is unclear how MBRP links to neurophysiological measures such as frontal midline theta oscillations (FMΘ) and whether the beneficial effects of MBRP can be increased by enhancing FMΘ. Here, we will use two different forms of neuromodulation to target and enhance these oscillations, and evaluate their impact on the effectiveness of MBRP. Methods This study will employ a four-arm randomized controlled trial to evaluate the synergistic effects of MBRP augmented with transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) or closed-loop amplitude-modulated transcranial alternating current stimulation (CLAM-tACS) on cognitive control, cue reactivity and interoceptive processing in AUD patients. Participants will undergo six weekly group MBRP sessions and daily individual mindfulness practices. Assessments will include an inhibition task, cue-induced craving task, and heartbeat discrimination task, alongside heart rate variability and 32-channel EEG recordings. Participants will be assessed pre and post treatment, with a three-month follow-up to evaluate long-term effects on abstinence and alcohol consumption. Discussion This study will not only elucidate the causal link between FMΘ and efficacy of MBRP, but contribute to a better understanding of how combined psychological and neuromodulation interventions can improve treatment outcomes for AUD, potentially leading to more effective therapeutic strategies. This study also seeks to explore individual differences in response to treatment, which could inform future approaches to AUD management. Trial registration This study received approval by the Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin Institutional Review Board (EA1/030/23, 10.11.2023). It was registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT06308484).

Abstract Higher cardiorespiratory fitness has been associated with improved cognitive control in preadolescent children, with various studies highlighting related brain health benefits. This cross-sectional study aimed to provide novel insights into the fitness-cognition relationship by investigating task-related changes in effective connectivity within two brain networks involved in cognitive control: the cingulo-opercular and fronto-parietal networks. Twenty-four higher-fit and twenty-four lower-fit preadolescent children completed a modified flanker task that modulated inhibitory control demand while their EEG and task performance were concurrently recorded. Effective connectivity for correct trials in the theta band was estimated using directed transfer function. The results indicate that children with higher fitness levels demonstrated greater connectivity in specific directions within the cingulo-opercular network (average effect size, d = 0.72). Brain-behavior correlations demonstrated a positive association between the majority of these connections and general task accuracy, which was also higher in higher fit children (average correlation coefficient, ρ = 0.34). The findings further support a positive relationship between fitness and cognitive performance in children. EEG findings offer novel insights into the potential brain mechanisms underlying the fitness-cognition relationship. The study suggests that increased task-related connectivity within the cingulo-opercular network may mediate the cognitive benefits associated with higher fitness levels in preadolescent children.

Prediction is often regarded as an integral aspect of incremental language comprehension, but little is known about the cognitive architectures and mechanisms that support it. We review studies showing that listeners and readers use all manner of contextual information to generate multifaceted predictions about upcoming input. The nature of these predictions may vary between individuals owing to differences in language experience, among other factors. We then turn to unresolved questions which may guide the search for the underlying mechanisms. (i) Is prediction essential to language processing or an optional strategy? (ii) Are predictions generated from within the language system or by domain-general processes? (iii) What is the relationship between prediction and memory? (iv) Does prediction in comprehension require simulation via the production system? We discuss promising directions for making progress in answering these questions and for developing a mechanistic understanding of prediction in language.