The timing of cognitive control in partially incongruent categorization

Abstract

We designed a novel task, partially incongruent categorization (PIC), to examine the timing of cognitive control. In the PIC task, participants categorized the probe stimulus according to a specific concept, and the number of features corresponding to the concept was varied. When there was one feature (c1 condition), the probe would elicit only categorization, but when there was more than one feature (c2 and c3 conditions), the probe would also elicit cognitive control. Here, the high temporal resolution of event-related potentials (ERPs) was utilized to investigate the temporal patterns of activity during conflict detection and control. Cognitive control elicited a N2 that was much larger in response to c2 and c3 than c1 in stimulus-locked waveforms, and no difference was evident between c2 and c3. The N2 was followed by a P3 that was much less on c2 and c3 than c1 trials, with no difference between c2 and c3. A dipole source analysis for two difference waves, c2-c1 and c3-c1, further showed that the corresponding dipoles of the N2 and P3 in the cognitive control conditions were in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and prefrontal cortex (PFC), respectively. Taken together, the present findings support that ERP components in response to the PIC task reflect the time course of cognitive control: the N2 responds to conflict information and subsequently activates the P3 to control this conflict. The connection between the ACC and PFC is supported by their sequential activation within trials.

Emotional expectations influence neural sensitivity to fearful faces in humans: An event-related potential study

“…This may explain the longer latencies of N1 in the cued versus uncued conditions, irrespective of facial emotion. In line with this interpretation, neural responses to facial expressions were larger during the uncued condition across P2 and 200-350 ms intervals (Figure 2), in the absence of cognitive control over task-irrelevant processes, in accord with previous reports [3,48,49].…”

Synapses with Inhibitory Neurons Differentiate Anterior Cingulate from Dorsolateral Prefrontal Pathways Associated with Cognitive Control

“…In simple working memory tasks, the few CB neurons engaged by area 46 may suffice to suppress moderate noise (Figure 7A, 46-cb). However, the ACC is recruited when noise increases under high cognitive demands (MacDonald, III et al, 2000; Gehring and Knight, 2000; Ito et al, 2003; Badre and Wagner, 2004; Johnston et al, 2007; Chen et al, 2008; Emeric et al, 2008). The ACC pathway may help reduce excessive noise by strongly activating CB inhibitory neurons through large terminals (Figure 7B, 32-cb).…”

Executive control- and reward-related neural processes associated with the opportunity to engage in voluntary dishonest moral decision making

“…In particular, it has been found that the parietal executive control-P3 is attenuated when experimental manipulations increase the executive control demands involved in the task. These manipulations include perceptual/memory load, dual-task, categorization ambiguity, stimulus-response incompatibility, among others (Chen et al 2008; Garcia-Larrea & Cezanne-Bert 1998; Hu et al, 2012; Kok 2001; Lorist et al 1996; Wickens et al 1983). Moreover, research has consistently demonstrated that instructed deception is associated with attenuated parietal executive control-P3, which was taken as evidence that deception involves executive control processes (e.g., Johnson et al, 2003).…”