Conflict processing is modulated by positive emotion: ERP data from a flanker task

2011 ◽  
Vol 219 (2) ◽  
pp. 382-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp Kanske ◽  
Sonja A. Kotz
Keyword(s):  
Positive Emotion ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Conflict Processing

scholarly journals Positive emotion enhances conflict processing in preschoolers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp Berger ◽  
Charlotte Grosse Wiesmann
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Conflict Processing ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Conflict Effect ◽  
Attentional System ◽  
Neutral Conditions ◽  
Goal Directed Behavior ◽  
Action Tendencies

The rapid detection and resolution of conflict between opposing action tendencies is crucial for our ability to engage in goal-directed behavior. Research in adults suggests that emotions might serve as a ‘relevance detector’ that alarms attentional and sensory systems, thereby leading to more efficient conflict processing. In contrast, previous research in children has almost exclusively stressed the impeding influence of emotion on the attentional system, as suggested by the protracted development of performance in ‘hot’ executive function tasks. How does emotion modulate conflict processing in development? We addressed this question applying a modified version of a color flanker task that either involved or did not involve emotional stimuli in preschool children (N = 43, with preregistered Bayesian sequential design, aged 2.8 – 7.0 years). Our results show a robust conflict effect with higher error rates in incongruent compared to congruent trials. Crucially, conflict resolution was faster in emotional compared to neutral conditions. Furthermore, while efficient conflict processing increases with age, we find evidence against an age-related change in the influence of emotion on conflict processing. Taken together, these findings provide first indication that emotion can trigger efficient control processes already from early on in life. In contrast to previous findings and theories in developmental psychology, this indicates that, depending on the role that emotion has in conflict processing, emotion may show a facilitative or impeding effect.

scholarly journals Threat-Induced Alterations in Cognition and Associations with Disinhibited Behavior

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Blayne McDonald ◽  
Edelyn Verona
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Previous Literature ◽  
Behavioral Indicators ◽  
Conflict Processing ◽  
Societal Burden ◽  
Diverse Community ◽  
Threat Of Shock

Previous literature suggests that threat disrupts cognitive control, especially for those prone to engaging in disinhibited behaviors. However, this relationship is not well understood and has yet to be directly examined. Our study extends previous literature by examining the link between individual differences in disinhibition and threat-related alterations in neurocognitive and behavioral indicators of cognitive control. Using a diverse community sample (N=143), we recorded participants’ brain activity during a flanker task under conditions of predictable, unpredictable, and no threat-of-shock. Findings revealed a nuanced relationship, whereby predictable threat, relative to unpredictable threat, was associated with larger N2 to flankers, at the expense of a reduced later P3. Contrary to predictions, higher levels of disinhibition were associated with higher conflict processing (larger congruence P3) and accuracy under conditions of threat relative to no threat. This research expands what is known about threat processing, cognitive allocation, and disinhibited behaviors with high societal burden.

scholarly journals Effective Connectivity of the Fronto-parietal Network during Attentional Control

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 543-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liang Wang ◽  
Xun Liu ◽  
Kevin G. Guise ◽  
Robert T. Knight ◽  
Jamshid Ghajar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Control ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Effective Connectivity ◽  
Causal Modeling ◽  
Dynamic Interactions ◽  
Contextual Modulation ◽  
Selection Procedures ◽  
Conflict Processing ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal

The ACC, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and the parietal cortex near/along the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) are members of a network subserving attentional control. Our recent study revealed that these regions participate in both response anticipation and conflict processing. However, little is known about the relative contribution of these regions in attentional control and how the dynamic interactions among these regions are modulated by detection of predicted versus unpredicted targets and conflict processing. Here, we examined effective connectivity using dynamic causal modeling among these three regions during a flanker task with or without a target onset cue. We compared various models in which different connections among ACC, DLPFC, and IPS were modulated by bottom–up stimulus-driven surprise and top–down conflict processing using Bayesian model selection procedures. The most optimal of these models incorporated contextual modulation that allowed processing of unexpected (surprising) targets to mediate the influence of the IPS over ACC and DLPFC and conflict processing to mediate the influence of ACC and DLPFC over the IPS. This result suggests that the IPS plays an initiative role in this network in the processing of surprise targets, whereas ACC and DLPFC interact with each other to resolve conflict through attentional modulation implemented via the IPS.

scholarly journals Electrophysiological and behavioral indices of cognitive conflict processing across adolescence

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Knut Overbye ◽  
Kristine B. Walhovd ◽  
Anders M. Fjell ◽  
Christian K. Tamnes ◽  
Rene J. Huster
Keyword(s):  
Flanker Task ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Cognitive Conflict ◽  
Developmental Trajectory ◽  
Interference Control ◽  
Positive Component ◽  
Negative Component ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Conflict Processing ◽  
Post Conflict

ABSTRACTCognitive control enables goal-oriented adaptation to a fast-changing environment and has a slow developmental trajectory that spans into young adulthood. The specifics of this development are still poorly understood, as are the neurodevelopmental mechanisms that drive it. In a cross-sectional sample of participants 8-19 years old (n = 108), we used blind source separation of EEG data recorded in a Flanker task to derive electrophysiological measures of attention and the processing of cognitive conflict, including a frontal negative component corresponding to the N2 and a parietal positive component corresponding to the P3. Additionally, we examined multiple behavioral measures of interference control derived from the Flanker, Stroop, and Anti-saccade tasks. We found a positive association between age and the amplitude of the parietal positive component, while there was no relationship between age and the amplitude of the frontal negative component. A stronger frontal negative amplitude was, however, age-independently related to better performance on both Stroop and Anti-saccade measures of interference control. Finally, we examined post-conflict behavioral adjustment on the Flanker task. A Gratton effect was found with slower reaction times on current congruent and better accuracy on current incongruent trials when preceded by incongruent as opposed to congruent trials. The Gratton effect on accuracy was positively associated with age. Together, the findings suggest a multifaceted developmental pattern in neurocognitive mechanisms for conflict processing across adolescence, with a more protracted development of the parietal positive compared to the frontal negative component.

scholarly journals Parsing the Flanker task to reveal behavioral and oscillatory correlates of unattended conflict interference

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcella Brunetti ◽  
Filippo Zappasodi ◽  
Pierpaolo Croce ◽  
Rosalia Di Matteo
Keyword(s):  
Response Selection ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Oscillatory Activity ◽  
Activity Data ◽  
Intrinsic Nature ◽  
Conflict Processing ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Stimulus Features ◽  
Stimulus Identification

Abstract Stimulus-Response conflict is generated by an overlap between stimulus and response dimensions, but the intrinsic nature of this interaction is not yet deeply clarified. In this study, using a modified Eriksen flanker task, we have investigated how flankers have to be incongruent to target in order to produce an interference and whether and how this interference interacts with the one produced by Stimulus features overlap. To these aims, an Eriksen-like task employing oriented hands\arrows has been designed to distinguish between two types of Stimulus-Response (S-R) interferences: one derived by a short-term association and one based on automatic processes. Stimulus-Stimulus (S-S) conflict has been also included in the same factorial design. Behavioral, Event Related Potential (ERP) and oscillatory activity data have been measured. Results revealed distinct S-S and automatic S-R effects on behavioral performance. ERP and Theta band power modulation results suggested an early frontal S-S conflict processing followed by a posterior simultaneous S-S and automatic S-R conflict processing. These findings provide evidence that, in presence of different conflicts, the sequence of stimulus identification and response selection could not move forward in a linear serial direction, but it may involve further effort, mirrored in posterior late components and response time prolongation.

scholarly journals Conflict Processing in Schizophrenia: Dissociable Neural Mechanisms Revealed by the N2 and Frontal Midline Theta

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiangfei Hong ◽  
Fuzhong Yang ◽  
Jijun Wang ◽  
Chunbo Li ◽  
Mingzhou Ding ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Executive Control ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Neural Mechanism ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Conflict Processing ◽  
Lower Accuracy ◽  
Frontal Midline Theta ◽  
Related Potentials

AbstractDeficits in executive control have long been regarded as one of the hallmark cognitive characteristics in people with schizophrenia (SZ), and current neurocognitive models of SZ generally regard the dysfunctional anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) as the possible neural mechanism. This however, contrasts with recent studies showing that conflict processing, a key component of executive functions that relies on ACC, remains relatively intact in SZ. The current study aimed to investigate this issue through two well-known electrophysiological signatures of conflict processing that have been suggested to origin from ACC, i.e., the N2 component of event-related potentials (ERPs) and frontal midline theta (FMθ) oscillations. We recorded 64-channel scalp electroencephalography from 29 SZ (17 women; mean age: 30.4 years) and 31 healthy control subjects (HC; 17 women; mean age: 29.1 years) performing a modified flanker task. Behavioral data revealed no significant differences in flanker conflict effects (lower accuracy and longer reaction time in incongruent trials than in congruent trials) between HC and SZ. Trial-averaged ERP and spectral analysis suggested that both N2 and FMθ were significantly impaired in SZ relative to HC. Furthermore, by sorting incongruent trials according to their reaction times within individual subjects, we found that the trial-by-trial modulation of N2 (larger amplitude and longer latency in slower trials) which was observed and localized in ACC in HC was totally absent in SZ. By contrast, the trial-by-trial modulation of FMθ (larger power in slower trials) was observed and localized in ACC in both groups, despite a relatively smaller magnitude in SZ. Notably, such trial-by-trial FMθ modulation was only present in incongruent trials that demanded conflict processing. Taken together, our results not only support the idea that FMθ, not N2, serves as the neural substrate of conflict processing in SZ, but also provide novel insights into the functional roles of ACC during executive control, enriching the current neurocognitive models of SZ.

scholarly journals Conflict monitoring and adaptation as reflected by N2 amplitude in obsessive–compulsive disorder

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (8) ◽  
pp. 1379-1388 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Riesel ◽  
J. Klawohn ◽  
N. Kathmann ◽  
T. Endrass
Keyword(s):  
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Conflict Adaptation ◽  
Conflict Monitoring ◽  
Obsessive Compulsive ◽  
Compulsive Disorder ◽  
Conflict Processing ◽  
Related Potentials

BackgroundFeelings of doubt and perseverative behaviours are key symptoms of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) and have been linked to hyperactive error and conflict signals in the brain. While enhanced neural correlates of error monitoring have been robustly shown, far less is known about conflict processing and adaptation in OCD.MethodWe examined event-related potentials during conflict processing in 70 patients with OCD and 70 matched healthy comparison participants, focusing on the stimulus-locked N2 elicited in a flanker task. Conflict adaptation was evaluated by analysing sequential adjustments in N2 and behaviour, i.e. current conflict effects as a function of preceding conflict.ResultsPatients with OCD showed enhanced N2 amplitudes compared with healthy controls. Further, patients showed stronger conflict adaptation effects on reaction times and N2 amplitude. Thus, the effect of previous compatibility was larger in patients than in healthy participants as indicated by greater N2 adjustments in change trials (i.e. iC, cI). As a result of stronger conflict adaptation in patients, N2 amplitudes were comparable between groups in incompatible trials following incompatible trials.ConclusionsLarger N2 amplitudes and greater conflict adaptation in OCD point to enhanced conflict monitoring leading to increased recruitment of cognitive control in patients. This was most pronounced in change trials and was associated with stronger conflict adjustment in N2 and behaviour. Thus, hyperactive conflict monitoring in OCD may be beneficial in situations that require a high amount of control to resolve conflict, but may also reflect an effortful process that is linked to distress and symptoms of OCD.

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