Beldzik Ewa, Ullsperger Markus
Institute of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Management and Social Communication, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland.
Institute for Medical Engineering and Sciences, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States.
Imaging Neurosci (Camb). 2024 May 8;2. doi: 10.1162/imag_a_00161. eCollection 2024.
The last two decades of electrophysiological and neuroimaging research converged that the activity in the medial frontal cortex plays a pivotal role in cognitive control processes. Notably, the midfrontal theta (MFT) oscillatory EEG power as well as activity in the anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC) or pre-supplementary motor area (preSMA) were consistently proclaimed as markers of conflict processing. However, these brain signals are strongly correlated with response time (RT) variability in various non-conflict tasks, which overshadows the true nature of their involvement. Our previous study (Beldzik et al., 2022) successfully identified these brain signals during a simultaneous EEG-fMRI experiment implementing Stroop and Simon tasks. Based on the assumption that overcoming the habitual prepotent response during high interference trials requires additional neural resources beyond simple decision variable represented in RTs, here we aim to verify if these markers exhibit a congruency effect beyond RT variations. Furthermore, we explored if these brain signals represent either proactive or reactive cognitive control mechanisms by investigating two widely known behavioral phenomena observed in conflict tasks: proportion congruency and congruency sequence effects. The results revealed partially null findings for MFT activity, yet a distinct cognitive control specialization between aMCC and preSMA. Our study provides novel evidence that the former is involved in proactive control mechanisms, possibly contingency learning, whereas the latter reflects reactive control mechanisms by exhibiting a strong congruency effect regardless of RT variation and responding to adaptive behavior.
过去二十年的电生理和神经影像学研究一致认为，内侧额叶皮质的活动在认知控制过程中起着关键作用。值得注意的是，额中θ波（MFT）振荡脑电图功率以及前扣带回中部皮质（aMCC）或前辅助运动区（preSMA）的活动一直被视为冲突处理的标志物。然而，在各种非冲突任务中，这些脑信号与反应时间（RT）变异性密切相关，这掩盖了它们参与的真实性质。我们之前的研究（Beldzik等人，2022年）在一项同时进行脑电图-功能磁共振成像实验中成功识别了这些脑信号，该实验采用了斯特鲁普任务和西蒙任务。基于这样的假设，即在高干扰试验中克服习惯性优势反应需要超出反应时间中所代表的简单决策变量之外的额外神经资源，在此我们旨在验证这些标志物是否表现出超出反应时间变化的一致性效应。此外，我们通过研究在冲突任务中观察到的两种广为人知的行为现象：比例一致性和一致性序列效应，来探究这些脑信号是代表主动还是反应性认知控制机制。结果显示，MFT活动部分呈现无效结果，但aMCC和preSMA之间存在明显的认知控制专业化。我们的研究提供了新的证据，表明前者参与主动控制机制，可能是偶然性学习，而后者通过表现出强烈的一致性效应（无论反应时间如何变化）并对适应性行为做出反应，反映了反应性控制机制。
