Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA.
Psychophysiology. 2018 Mar;55(3). doi: 10.1111/psyp.13007. Epub 2017 Sep 28.
Reactive cognitive control refers to a complementary set of cognitive operations by which individuals monitor for and detect the presence of goal-interfering conflict (i.e., conflict monitoring/evaluation) and, subsequently, initiate attention-focusing and response selection processes to bolster goal-directed action in the face of such conflict (regulative control). The purpose of the current study was to characterize the nature of conflict adaptation in both components of this dynamic process across sequences of trials and, more broadly, across time as participants complete a cognitive control task. Fifty-two young adults completed a standard arrow flanker task while behavioral and ERP data were recorded. Multilevel modeling of sequences of compatible and incompatible trials over time showed that, whereas response time data demonstrated a typical conflict adaptation effect throughout the task, N2 and frontal slow wave (FSW) indices of conflict monitoring and regulative control, respectively, demonstrated significant conflict adaptation only during the early part of the task. Moreover, although differential change in N2 and FSW over time suggested that conflict monitoring and regulative control were dissociable, a reciprocal relation between them was maintained throughout the task and was not present in a component theoretically unrelated to conflict adaptation (visual attention-related N1). Findings are discussed in terms of compensatory processes that help to maintain goal-directed performance even as control-related neural responses become fatigued.
反应性认知控制是指个体监测和检测目标干扰冲突（即冲突监测/评估）的一系列互补认知操作，随后启动注意力聚焦和响应选择过程，以在面临这种冲突时增强目标导向行为（调节控制）。本研究的目的是描述在试验序列中以及更广泛地在参与者完成认知控制任务的时间内，这一动态过程的两个组成部分的冲突适应的性质。52 名年轻成年人在记录行为和 ERP 数据的同时完成了标准的箭头侧翼任务。随着时间的推移，对兼容和不兼容试验序列的多层次建模表明，虽然反应时数据在整个任务中表现出典型的冲突适应效应，但 N2 和额叶慢波（FSW）分别作为冲突监测和调节控制的指标，仅在任务的早期部分表现出显著的冲突适应。此外，尽管 N2 和 FSW 随时间的差异变化表明冲突监测和调节控制是可分离的，但它们之间的相互关系在整个任务中都得到了维持，而在与冲突适应理论上无关的组件（与视觉注意力相关的 N1）中则不存在。研究结果从补偿过程的角度进行了讨论，这些过程有助于维持目标导向的表现，即使控制相关的神经反应变得疲劳。
