Distinct and temporally associated neural mechanisms underlying concurrent, postsuccess, and posterror cognitive controls: Evidence from a stop‐signal task

Abstract

Cognitive control is built upon the interactions of multiple brain regions. It is currently unclear whether the involved regions are temporally separable in relation to different cognitive processes and how these regions are temporally associated in relation to different task performances. Here, using stop‐signal task data acquired from 119 healthy participants, we showed that concurrent and poststop cognitive controls were associated with temporally distinct but interrelated neural mechanisms. Specifically, concurrent cognitive control activated regions in the cingulo‐opercular network (including the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex [dACC], insula, and thalamus), together with superior temporal gyrus, secondary motor areas, and visual cortex; while regions in the fronto‐parietal network (including the lateral prefrontal cortex [lPFC] and inferior parietal lobule) and cerebellum were only activated during poststop cognitive control. The associations of activities between concurrent and poststop regions were dependent on task performance, with the most notable difference in the cerebellum. Importantly, while concurrent and poststop signals were significantly correlated during successful cognitive control, concurrent activations during erroneous trials were only correlated with posterror activations in the fronto‐parietal network but not cerebellum. Instead, the cerebellar activation during posterror cognitive control was likely to be driven secondarily by posterror activation in the lPFC. Further, a dynamic causal modeling analysis demonstrated that postsuccess cognitive control was associated with inhibitory connectivity from the lPFC to cerebellum, while excitatory connectivity from the lPFC to cerebellum was present during posterror cognitive control. Overall, these findings suggest dissociable but temporally related neural mechanisms underlying concurrent, postsuccess, and posterror cognitive control processes in healthy individuals.

Intrinsic network changes associated with cognitive impairment in patients with hearing loss and tinnitus: a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study

“…The LFPN is thought of as a linguistic network and has been reported to be involved in language-related cognitive processes, such as phonological, semantic, episodic, and working memory (41). The STG is a key area not only for auditory perception but also for visual working memory, decision-making, and emotional processing (42,43). Hearing loss may lead to hypoacusis of the auditory cortex (i.e., the STG), which results in reduced FC between the STG and the AN or LFPN.…”

Prefrontal-cerebellar dynamics during post-success and post-error cognitive controls in major psychiatric disorders

“…These findings suggest that the previously detected correlational dissociations in healthy individuals could to a large degree generalize to patients with psychiatric disorders, in particular between ACC and cerebellum. As such, we modeled the post-success driving input to the cerebellum and post-error driving input to the prefrontal cortex in the subsequent DCM analysis, which is commensurate with the results in our prior publication (Cao & Cannon, 2021).…”

“…For the three dynamics modeled by DCM (intrinsic connectivity, driving input, modulatory effect), we here were particularly interested in the modulatory effects of post-success and post-error cognitive controls on the effective connectivity of the prefrontalcerebellar circuit. Therefore, we fixed the other two dynamics in our DCM models based on prior findings (Cao & Cannon, 2021) as well as the results in the present sample (Fig. 2).…”

“…Using a stop-signal task and a relatively large sample of healthy subjects, we have previously shown that post-success and post-error cognitive controls are associated with distinct neurobiological mechanisms particularly in relation to the prefrontal-cerebellar circuitry (Cao & Cannon, 2021). In particular, during 'go' trials immediately following a successful stop, significant excitatory bottom-up connectivity from the cerebellum to the lateral prefrontal cortex was present, while top-down connectivity from the lateral prefrontal cortex to the cerebellum was inhibited.…”

“…Prefrontal-cerebellar effective connectivity during post-success and post-error cognitive controls as revealed by DCM. (a) A total of nine models were defined based on previous work(Cao & Cannon, 2021) and present results shown in Fig.2. Modulatory effects on top-down connectivity (prefrontal->cerebellum), bottom-up connectivity (cerebellum->prefrontal), and both directionalities were examined for both conditions.…”