Electrophysiological and behavioral indexes of conflict processing during voluntary orienting of attention and alerting

NeuroMi Annual Meeting 2017 Cognitive and Behavioural Neuroscience Electrophysiological and behavioral indexes of conflict processing during voluntary orienting of attention and alerting Alberto Zani, Alice Mado Proverbio First author address: National Rearch Council (CNR) , Milan, Italy. First author email: alberto.zani@ibfm.cnr.it Introduction : Unlike what proposed by cognitive models of executive and control functions as well as error-monitoring functions relative to the lack of any influences of neurocognitive functions on neural processing of conflict, scant behavioral evidence suggests that pre-cued valid orienting of attention to competing information diminishes costs of brain processing of conflict. Besides, still unclear, because scantily addressed by neuroimaging studies and mostly analyzed by means of behavioral indexing, it is also whether conflict undergoes a modulation by tonic and pre-cued phasic alerting. Methods : To investigate the influence of alertness and/or attention on brain processing of conflicting information, a sample of students has been subjected to different experimental conditions in which sequences of strings of arrows were presented to them. The direction of the central arrow signaled which hand to use to press a button for the measurement of their reaction times to the appearance of the arrows in one of two alternative points of the visual field, regardless of the direction of the flanking arrows, which could point to the same (congruent) or to the opposite (incongruent) direction of the central one. Each string of arrows was randomly preceded by a different kind of pre-cueing so to induce 4 states of alertness and orienting of spatial attention. During these conditions, we recorded brain EEG-ERP activity, which was analyzed as a function of the different functional states induced and the congruency of the arrows presented. Results : In the incongruent condition, the speed of participants' motor response to the arrows was slowed both in the presence and/or absence of alert, but not when the arrows were preceded by the cueing of attention toward the arrows valid point in space. ERPs revealed a CN between 250-450 ms after the presentation of the arrows at the anterior areas of the head as a function of the arrows congruency. This neuromarker was slower in the various alerting conditions compared to that found for the voluntary orienting. Voltage maps as a function of the pre-cueing conditions hinted at the activation of brain medial anterior cingulate cortex for the voluntary attention condition and of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of the right hemisphere for the alerting and reflexive attention conditions. Discussion : The CN seems to be a valuable marker of the different neural processing of psychomotor conflict induced by the various cueing contexts, unlike what proposed by current neurocognitive theory that considers executive control not affected by the functional states during which it takes place. They have implications for both psychological and neuropsychological clinical practices: (1) in the definition of brain and mental processes underlying cognitive and emotional conflict as well as the decisional instability of patients affected by anxiety or manic-depressive disorders; (2) for diagnosing executive deficits in frontal damaged patients, as well as for their rehabilitation programs, in relation to the neuromotor functions affected, the injured areas, and their hemispheric lateralization. References : 1. Botvinick, Cog, Aff, Behav Neurosci, 7, 356-366 (2007). 2. Kelly et al, Europ J of Neuroci, 31, 1690-1700 (2010). Keywords : Cognitive and Behavioural Neuroscience; normal population; group study; adults; not relevant; electrophysiological (e.g. EEG), behavioural, Action & Executive functions. Milan, September 13th, 2017