Giller Franziska, Mückschel Moritz, Ziemssen Tjalf, Beste Christian
Cognitive Neurophysiology, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, TU Dresden, Germany.
Cognitive Neurophysiology, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, TU Dresden, Germany; MS Centre Dresden, Centre of Clinical Neuroscience, Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, TU Dresden, Germany.
Cortex. 2020 Jul;128:22-34. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2020.03.008. Epub 2020 Apr 1.
Sequential cognitive flexibility is a major requirement for goal-directed behavior. Recent findings show that inhibitory control processes are crucial for sequential cognitive flexibility. These processes are indicated by the 'backward inhibition (BI) effect' which emerges when a mental representation that has recently been suppressed in favour of another task has to be re-activated. Alterations in the catecholaminergic neural transmission including the norepinephrine (NE) system have been shown to modulate inhibitory processes. However, a possible role of the NE system in sequential cognitive flexibility is elusive. The present study examines the relevance of the NE system for sequential cognitive flexibility by integrating pupil diameter data and electrophysiological (EEG) data applying signal decomposition techniques and source localization. We show that the BI effects modulated amplitudes in the P1/N1 time window, as well as in the N2 time window. Correlating this data with the pupil diameter data only revealed substantial correlations in the P1/N1 time window. Moreover, it is shown that regions in the right inferior frontal gyrus are activated during modulations in the P1 time window, in which correlations with the pupil diameter data were also evident. The results are interpreted that sequential cognitive flexibility modulates early inhibitory gating processes (P1) which are related to the suppression of task-irrelevant information in inferior frontal regions. These processes are likely modulated by the NE system.
顺序认知灵活性是目标导向行为的主要要求。最近的研究结果表明，抑制控制过程对顺序认知灵活性至关重要。这些过程由“反向抑制（BI）效应”表明，当最近为了支持另一项任务而被抑制的心理表征必须重新激活时，该效应就会出现。包括去甲肾上腺素（NE）系统在内的儿茶酚胺能神经传递的改变已被证明可调节抑制过程。然而，NE系统在顺序认知灵活性中的可能作用尚不清楚。本研究通过整合瞳孔直径数据和应用信号分解技术及源定位的电生理（EEG）数据，研究NE系统与顺序认知灵活性的相关性。我们发现，BI效应调节了P1/N1时间窗口以及N2时间窗口中的振幅。将此数据与瞳孔直径数据相关联，仅在P1/N1时间窗口中发现了显著的相关性。此外，研究表明，在P1时间窗口的调制过程中，右下额叶回中的区域被激活，其中与瞳孔直径数据的相关性也很明显。结果表明，顺序认知灵活性调节早期抑制门控过程（P1），这些过程与额叶下部区域中任务无关信息的抑制有关。这些过程可能受NE系统调节。
