scholarly journals Quantifying the cost of cognitive stability and flexibility

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danae Papadopetraki ◽  
Monja I. Froböse ◽  
Andrew Westbrook ◽  
Bram B. Zandbelt ◽  
Roshan Cools
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Delayed Response ◽  
Cognitive Stability ◽  
Effort Discounting ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
The Cost

AbstractExerting cognitive control is well known to be accompanied by a subjective effort cost and people are generally biased to avoid it. However, the nature of cognitive control costs is currently unclear. Recent theorizing suggests that the cost of cognitive effort serves as a motivational signal to bias the system away from excessive focusing (i.e. cognitive stability) and towards more cognitive flexibility. We asked whether the effort cost of cognitive stability is higher than that of cognitive flexibility. Specifically, we tested this prediction in the domain of working memory by using (i) a delayed response paradigm that allows us to manipulate demands for stability (distractor resistance) and flexibility (flexible updating) of working memory representations, as well as (ii) a subsequent cognitive effort discounting paradigm that allows us to quantify the subjective effort costs assigned to performing the delayed response paradigm. We show strong evidence, in two different samples (28 and 62 participants respectively) that subjective cost increases as a function of demand. Moreover, we demonstrate that the subjective cost of performing a task requiring cognitive stability (distractor resistance) is higher than that requiring flexible updating, supporting the hypothesis that the subjective effort cost of cognitive stability is higher than that of flexibility.

scholarly journals The Neurocognitive Cost of Enhancing Cognition with Methylphenidate: Improved Distractor Resistance but Impaired Updating

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 652-663 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean James Fallon ◽  
Marieke E. van der Schaaf ◽  
Niels ter Huurne ◽  
Roshan Cools
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Dependent Manner ◽  
Neural Signal ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Cognitive Stability ◽  
Paradoxical Effects ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
The Stability ◽  
And Task

A balance has to be struck between supporting distractor-resistant representations in working memory and allowing those representations to be updated. Catecholamine, particularly dopamine, transmission has been proposed to modulate the balance between the stability and flexibility of working memory representations. However, it is unclear whether drugs that increase catecholamine transmission, such as methylphenidate, optimize this balance in a task-dependent manner or bias the system toward stability at the expense of flexibility (or vice versa). Here we demonstrate, using pharmacological fMRI, that methylphenidate improves the ability to resist distraction (cognitive stability) but impairs the ability to flexibly update items currently held in working memory (cognitive flexibility). These behavioral effects were accompanied by task-general effects in the striatum and opposite and task-specific effects on neural signal in the pFC. This suggests that methylphenidate exerts its cognitive enhancing and impairing effects through acting on the pFC, an effect likely associated with methylphenidate's action on the striatum. These findings highlight that methylphenidate acts as a double-edged sword, improving one cognitive function at the expense of another, while also elucidating the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying these paradoxical effects.

scholarly journals Distributed networks for auditory memory contribute differentially to recall precision

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sung-Joo Lim ◽  
Christiane Thiel ◽  
Bernhard Sehm ◽  
Lorenz Deserno ◽  
Jöran Lepsien ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Brain Networks ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Superior Temporal Sulcus ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Auditory Memory ◽  
Control Brain ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
Auditory Objects

AbstractThe representations held in working memory are inherently noisy, but attention directed to relevant objects can effectively enhance their fidelity. While recent working memory models suggest that memory representations are distributed across sensory and cognitive-control brain regions, it remains unknown how multiple brain networks generate this attentional gain in fidelity. Here, we investigated the contributions of the distinct brain networks in maintaining and enhancing memory representations using psychophysical modeling and fMRI. Human listeners performed an auditory syllable pitch-discrimination task, in which they received valid (vs. neutral) retro-active cues to selectively attend to one of the two syllable categories maintained in memory. Valid (vs. neutral) retro-cues facilitated task performance, eliciting faster recall and enhanced recall precision of syllables in memory. Valid retro-cues also led to increased neural activation in fronto-parietal and cingulo-opercular networks, but not in sensory-specific superior temporal cortex. Multivariate pattern analysis as a proxy for representational fidelity in memory revealed that attended syllable objects were maintained in distributed areas across superior temporal, frontal, parietal, and sensorimotor brain areas. However, neural fidelity in left superior temporal sulcus and its enhancement through attention-to-memory best predicted the ensuing individual gain in recall precision of auditory objects from memory. These results demonstrate that maintaining versus attentionally enhancing auditory memory representations are functionally separable mechanisms across distributed brain regions.Significance StatementWorking memory is distributed across sensory and cognitive-control brain regions. But how do these brain networks enhance working memory precision when attention is re-directed to memory? We here investigate the contributions of distinct brain networks in maintaining and enhancing auditory memory representations through attention-to-memory using fMRI. We demonstrate that re-directing attention to the relevant auditory memory objects mainly recruits higher-order cognitive-control networks. Among the multiple brain regions retaining memory representations, however, attentional enhancement of the neural fidelity in superior temporal sulcus best predicts the individual gain in recall precision of auditory objects from memory. This study provides evidence of the interplay among the discrete, functionally specialized brain regions in maintaining and attentionally enhancing working memory representations.

The Case of the Cognitive (Opti)miser: Electrophysiological Correlates of Working Memory Maintenance Predict Demand Avoidance

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (8) ◽  
pp. 1550-1561
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Nador ◽  
Assaf Harel ◽  
Ion Juvina ◽  
Brandon Minnery
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Match To Sample ◽  
Irrelevant Distractors ◽  
Filtering Efficiency ◽  
Task Irrelevant

People are often considered cognitive misers. When given a free choice between two tasks, people tend to choose tasks requiring less cognitive effort. Such demand avoidance (DA) is associated with cognitive control, but it is still not clear to what extent individual differences in cognitive control can account for variations in DA. We sought to elucidate the relation between cognitive control and cognitive effort preferences by investigating the extent to which sustained neural activity in a task requiring cognitive control is correlated with DA. We hypothesized that neural measures of efficient filtering will predict individual variations in demand preferences. To test this hypothesis, we had participants perform a delayed-match-to-sample paradigm with their ERPs recorded, as well as a separate behavioral demand-selection task. We focused on the ERP correlates of cognitive filtering efficiency (CFE)—the ability to ignore task-irrelevant distractors during working memory maintenance—as it manifests in a modulation of the contralateral delay activity, an ERP correlate of cognitive control. As predicted, we found a significant positive correlation between CFE and DA. Individuals with high CFE tended to be significantly more demand avoidant than their low-CFE counterparts. Low-CFE individuals, in comparison, did not form distinct cognitive effort preferences. Overall, our results suggest that cognitive control over the contents of visual working memory contribute to individual differences in the expression of cognitive effort preferences. This further implies that these observed preferences are the product of sensitivity to cognitive task demands.

scholarly journals Reward Acts on the pFC to Enhance Distractor Resistance of Working Memory Representations

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (12) ◽  
pp. 2812-2826 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean James Fallon ◽  
Roshan Cools
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Ventral Striatum ◽  
Reward Processing ◽  
Functional Coupling ◽  
Dependent Manner ◽  
Cognitive Stability ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
Types Of Information ◽  
Differential Coupling ◽  
Dependent Interaction

Working memory and reward processing are often thought to be separate, unrelated processes. However, most daily activities involve integrating these two types of information, and the two processes rarely, if ever, occur in isolation. Here, we show that working memory and reward interact in a task-dependent manner and that this task-dependent interaction involves modulation of the pFC by the ventral striatum. Specifically, BOLD signal during gains relative to losses in the ventral striatum and pFC was associated not only with enhanced distractor resistance but also with impairment in the ability to update working memory representations. Furthermore, the effect of reward on working memory was accompanied by differential coupling between the ventral striatum and ignore-related regions in the pFC. Together, these data demonstrate that reward-related signals modulate the balance between cognitive stability and cognitive flexibility by altering functional coupling between the ventral striatum and the pFC.

scholarly journals Distractor inhibition contributes to retroactive attentional orienting within working memory: Evidence by lateralized alpha oscillations in the EEG

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Schneider ◽  
Anna Barth ◽  
Henrike Haase ◽  
Clayton Hickey ◽  
Edmund Wascher
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Memory Representation ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Attentional Orienting ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Storage And Retrieval ◽  
Irrelevant Item ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Memory Resources

AbstractShifts of attention within mental representations based on retroactive cues (retro-cues) facilitate performance in working memory tasks. It was suggested that this retro-cue benefit is related to the concentration of working memory resources on a subset of representations, thereby improving storage and retrieval at the cost of non-cued items. However, the attentional mechanisms underlying this updating of working memory representations remain unknown. Here, we present EEG data for distinguishing between target enhancement and distractor suppression processes in the context of retroactive attentional orienting. Therefore, we used a working memory paradigm with retro-cues indicating a shift of attention to either a lateralized or non-lateralized item. There was an increase of posterior alpha power contralateral compared to ipsilateral to the irrelevant item when a non-lateralized mental representation was cued and a contralateral suppression of posterior alpha power when a lateralized item had to be selected. This suggests that both inhibition of the non-cued information and enhancement of the target representation are important features of attentional orienting within working memory. By further presenting cues to either remember or to forget a working memory representation, we give a first impression of these retroactive attentional sub-processes as two separable cognitive mechanisms.

scholarly journals Neural systems of cognitive demand avoidance

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ceyda Sayalı ◽  
David Badre
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Avoidance Behavior ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Network Activity ◽  
Partial Support ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Demand Selection ◽  
Control Hypothesis ◽  
Reward Network

AbstractCognitive effort is typically aversive, evident in people’s tendency to avoid cognitively demanding tasks. The ‘cost of control’ hypothesis suggests that engagement of cognitive control systems of the brain makes a task costly and the currency of that cost is a reduction in anticipated rewards. However, prior studies have relied on binary hard versus easy task subtractions to manipulate cognitive effort and so have not tested this hypothesis in “dose-response” fashion. In a sample of 50 participants, we parametrically manipulated the level of effort during fMRI scanning by systematically increasing cognitive control demands during a demand-selection paradigm over six levels. As expected, frontoparietal control network (FPN) activity increased, and reward network activity decreased, as control demands increased across tasks. However, avoidance behavior was not attributable to the change in FPN activity, lending only partial support to the cost of control hypothesis. By contrast, we unexpectedly observed that the deactivation of a task-negative brain network corresponding to the Default Mode Network (DMN) across levels of the cognitive control manipulation predicted the change in avoidance. In summary, we find partial support for the cost of control hypothesis, while highlighting the role of task-negative brain networks in modulating effort avoidance behavior.

scholarly journals The Effect of Hydration on Cognition in Children: The WITiKids Randomized Controlled Crossover Trial (OR32-08-19)

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naiman Khan ◽  
Daniel Westfall ◽  
Alicia Jones ◽  
Macie Sinn ◽  
Jeanne Bottin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Water Intake ◽  
The United States ◽  
Superior Performance ◽  
Urinary Markers ◽  
Urine Color ◽  
Ad Libitum

Abstract Objectives Previous work in adults has shown that dehydration has negative effects on cognitive function. However, the effect of changes in hydration on cognitive function remain understudied in children. This is relevant since epidemiological data suggests that a large proportion of children in the United States exhibit highly concentrated urine, suggestive of insufficient hydration. This study aimed to determine the effects of changes in daily water intake on urinary markers of hydration and cognitive control among school-aged children. Methods 9–11-year-old children (N = 82) completed a three-intervention crossover water intake intervention where they were asked to either maintain their regular water intake (ad libitum) or consume High [2.5 L/d] or Low [0.5 L/d]) water for 4 consecutive days. Following the interventions, cognitive control tasks requiring inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility were assessed using a modified flanker, Go/NoGo, and color-shape switch tasks. During day 4 of each intervention, children collected their urine over a 24-hour period for urine color, urine specific gravity (USG), and osmolality assessment. Results Hydration differed significantly between interventions. Urine color during the Low intervention was significantly higher than ad libitum and both were significantly greater than High intervention (Low: 6 [median] and 2 [iqr], ad libitum: 5 [median] and 2 [iqr], High: 3 [median] and 0 [iqr], all P ≤ 0.01). Similar intervention effects were observed for osmolality (Low: 912 ± 199, ad libitum: 790 ± 257.0, High: 260 ± 115 mOsmol/kg, all P < 0.001) and USG (Low: 1.023 ± 0.005, ad libitum: 1.020 ± 0.007, High: 1.005 ± 0.004, all P < 0.001). Ad libitumhydration was positively related to switch task performance. Benefits of the High intervention were observed during the switch task whereby participants exhibited lower working memory cost relative to the Low intervention. No significant changes in cognition were observed for the flanker and Go/NoGo tasks. Conclusions Children with better habitual hydration exhibited superior performance during the cognitive flexibility task. Additionally, the 4d water intervention resulted in significant changes in urinary markers of hydration and had selective benefits during task switching. Funding Sources Danone Research, Palaiseau, France.

scholarly journals Neuromodulation of Persistent Activity and Working Memory Circuitry in Primate Prefrontal Cortex by Muscarinic Receptors

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susheel Vijayraghavan ◽  
Stefan Everling
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Muscarinic Receptors ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
State Transitions ◽  
Brain State ◽  
Persistent Activity ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

Neuromodulation by acetylcholine plays a vital role in shaping the physiology and functions of cerebral cortex. Cholinergic neuromodulation influences brain-state transitions, controls the gating of cortical sensory stimulus responses, and has been shown to influence the generation and maintenance of persistent activity in prefrontal cortex. Here we review our current understanding of the role of muscarinic cholinergic receptors in primate prefrontal cortex during its engagement in the performance of working memory tasks. We summarize the localization of muscarinic receptors in prefrontal cortex, review the effects of muscarinic neuromodulation on arousal, working memory and cognitive control tasks, and describe the effects of muscarinic M1 receptor stimulation and blockade on the generation and maintenance of persistent activity of prefrontal neurons encoding working memory representations. Recent studies describing the pharmacological effects of M1 receptors on prefrontal persistent activity demonstrate the heterogeneity of muscarinic actions and delineate unexpected modulatory effects discovered in primate prefrontal cortex when compared with studies in rodents. Understanding the underlying mechanisms by which muscarinic receptors regulate prefrontal cognitive control circuitry will inform the search of muscarinic-based therapeutic targets in the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders.

scholarly journals Prefrontal Cortical Mechanisms Underlying Individual Differences in Cognitive Flexibility and Stability

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (12) ◽  
pp. 2385-2399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana J. N. Armbruster ◽  
Kai Ueltzhöffer ◽  
Ulrike Basten ◽  
Christian J. Fiebach
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Task Switching ◽  
Functional Coupling ◽  
Switching Rate ◽  
Distractor Inhibition ◽  
Cognitive Stability ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Inferior Frontal Junction

The pFC is critical for cognitive flexibility (i.e., our ability to flexibly adjust behavior to changing environmental demands), but also for cognitive stability (i.e., our ability to follow behavioral plans in the face of distraction). Behavioral research suggests that individuals differ in their cognitive flexibility and stability, and neurocomputational theories of working memory relate this variability to the concept of attractor stability in recurrently connected neural networks. We introduce a novel task paradigm to simultaneously assess flexible switching between task rules (cognitive flexibility) and task performance in the presence of irrelevant distractors (cognitive stability) and to furthermore assess the individual “spontaneous switching rate” in response to ambiguous stimuli to quantify the individual dispositional cognitive flexibility in a theoretically motivated way (i.e., as a proxy for attractor stability). Using fMRI in healthy human participants, a common network consisting of parietal and frontal areas was found for task switching and distractor inhibition. More flexible persons showed reduced activation and reduced functional coupling in frontal areas, including the inferior frontal junction, during task switching. Most importantly, the individual spontaneous switching rate antagonistically affected the functional coupling between inferior frontal junction and the superior frontal gyrus during task switching and distractor inhibition, respectively, indicating that individual differences in cognitive flexibility and stability are indeed related to a common prefrontal neural mechanism. We suggest that the concept of attractor stability of prefrontal working memory networks is a meaningful model for individual differences in cognitive stability versus flexibility.

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