Wang Yao-Yao, Sun Li, Liu Yi-Wei, Pan Jia-Hui, Zheng Yu-Ming, Wang Yu-Feng, Zang Yu-Feng, Zhang Hang
Institute of Psychological Sciences, College of Education, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China.
Center for Cognition and Brain Disorders, The Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China.
Front Psychol. 2020 Jul 14;11:1555. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01555. eCollection 2020.
Reaction-time variability is a critical index of sustained attention. However, researchers still lack effective measures to establish the association between neurophysiological activity and this behavioral variability. Here, the present study recorded reaction time (RT) and cortical electroencephalogram (EEG) in healthy subjects when they continuously performed an alternative responding task. The frontal theta activity and reaction-time variability were examined trial by trial using the measures of standard deviation (SD) in the time domain and amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) in the frequency domain. Our results showed that the SD of reaction-time variability did not have any correlation with the SD of trial-by-trial frontal theta activity, and the ALFF of reaction-time variability has a significant correlation with the ALFF of trial-by-trial frontal theta activity in 0.01-0.027 Hz. These results suggested the methodological significance of ALFF in establishing the association between neurophysiological activity and reaction-time variability. Furthermore, these findings also support the low-frequency fluctuation as a potential feature of sustained attention.
反应时变异性是持续注意力的关键指标。然而，研究人员仍缺乏有效的方法来建立神经生理活动与这种行为变异性之间的关联。在此，本研究记录了健康受试者在连续执行交替反应任务时的反应时（RT）和皮层脑电图（EEG）。使用时域中的标准差（SD）和频域中的低频波动幅度（ALFF）逐次试验地检查额叶θ活动和反应时变异性。我们的结果表明，反应时变异性的SD与逐次试验的额叶θ活动的SD没有任何相关性，并且反应时变异性的ALFF与0.01 - 0.027 Hz范围内逐次试验的额叶θ活动的ALFF具有显著相关性。这些结果表明了ALFF在建立神经生理活动与反应时变异性之间关联方面的方法学意义。此外，这些发现也支持低频波动作为持续注意力的一个潜在特征。
