Cortex level connectivity between ACT-R modules during EEG-based n-back task

Abstract

Finding the synchronization between Electroencephalography (EEG) and human cognition is an essential aspect of cognitive neuroscience. Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational (ACT-R) is a widely used cognitive architecture that defines the cognitive and perceptual operations of the human mind. This study combines the ACT-R and EEG-based cortex-level connectivity to highlight the relationship between ACT-R modules during the EEG-based n-back task (for validating working memory performance). Initially, the source localization method is performed on the EEG signal, and the mapping between ACT-R modules and corresponding brain scouts (on the cortex surface) is performed. Once the brain scouts are identified for ACT-R modules, then those scouts are called ACT-R scouts. The linear (Granger Causality: GC) and non-linear effective connectivity (Multivariate Transfer Entropy: MTE) methods are applied over the scouts’ time series data. From the GC and MTE analysis, for all n-back tasks, information flow is observed from the visual-to-imaginal ACT-R scout for storing the visual stimuli (i.e., input letter) in short-term memory. For 2 and 3-back tasks, causal flow exists from imaginal to retrieval ACT-R scout and vice-versa. Causal flow from procedural to the imaginal ACT-R scout is also observed for all workload levels to execute the set of productions. Identifying the relationship among ACT-R modules through scout-level connectivity in the cortical surface facilitates the effects of human cognition in terms of brain dynamics.