Cognitive Neurophysiology, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, TU Dresden, Fetscherstrasse 74, 01307, Dresden, Germany.
Brain Struct Funct. 2021 May;226(4):1335-1351. doi: 10.1007/s00429-021-02245-4. Epub 2021 Mar 3.
Conflict monitoring processes are central for cognitive control. Neurophysiological correlates of conflict monitoring (i.e. the N2 ERP) likely represent a mixture of different cognitive processes. Based on theoretical considerations, we hypothesized that effects of anodal tDCS (atDCS) in superior frontal areas affect specific subprocesses in neurophysiological activity during conflict monitoring. To investigate this, young healthy adults performed a Simon task while EEG was recorded. atDCS and sham tDCS were applied in a single-blind, cross-over study design. Using temporal signal decomposition in combination with source localization analyses, we demonstrated that atDCS effects on cognitive control are very specific: the detrimental effect of atDCS on response speed was largest in case of response conflicts. This however only showed in aspects of the decomposed N2 component, reflecting stimulus-response translation processes. In contrast to this, stimulus-related aspects of the N2 as well as purely response-related processes were not modulated by atDCS. EEG source localization analyses revealed that the effect was likely driven by activity modulations in the superior frontal areas, including the supplementary motor cortex (BA6), as well as middle frontal (BA9) and medial frontal areas (BA32). atDCS did not modulate effects of proprioceptive information on hand position, even though this aspect is known to be processed within the same brain areas. Physiological effects of atDCS likely modulate specific aspects of information processing during cognitive control.
冲突监测过程是认知控制的核心。冲突监测的神经生理相关性（即 N2 ERP）可能代表了不同认知过程的混合。基于理论考虑，我们假设额上区阳极经颅直流电刺激（atDCS）的影响会影响冲突监测期间神经生理活动中的特定子过程。为了研究这一点，年轻健康的成年人在进行 Simon 任务时记录了 EEG。atDCS 和假 tDCS 采用单盲、交叉设计进行应用。我们使用时频信号分解结合源定位分析，证明了 atDCS 对认知控制的影响非常特定：在反应冲突的情况下，atDCS 对反应速度的不利影响最大。然而，这仅在反映刺激-反应转换过程的分解 N2 成分的方面上显示出来。与此相反，N2 的刺激相关方面以及纯粹的反应相关过程不受 atDCS 的调节。EEG 源定位分析表明，该效应可能是由额上区（包括辅助运动区（BA6）、中额区（BA9）和内侧额区（BA32））的活动调节驱动的。atDCS 并未调节本体感受信息对手部位置的影响，尽管这一方面已知是在相同的脑区中进行处理的。atDCS 的生理效应可能会调节认知控制期间信息处理的特定方面。
