Improved performance on working memory (WM) through training has been widely expected to transfer to other domains. Recent studies have proposed that WM training could enhance the autonomous ...coordination of WM processes. Based on the shared processes between WM and error processing, our present study explored the transfer effect of 15 days of training on post-error performance, during the n-back task, compared to a simple visual search task. Participants were randomly assigned to either the training (
= 22) or control (
= 18) group. We found that WM training successfully improved WM performance. After training, compared with the control group, the training group showed a significant reduction in post-error slowing (PES); however, post-error accuracy and the flanker effect were not modulated by WM training. Moreover, we observed a significant, negative correlation between the changes in PES and WM from pretest to posttest and classified two groups based on these changes in PES with 70% accuracy. Thus, in our present sample, WM training improved post-error performance. We propose that the skill of controlling information flow, developed during WM training, is transferable to other tasks and discuss the implications of current findings for understanding the generation of PES.
We investigated if emotion regulation can be improved through self-regulation training on non-emotional brain regions, as well as how to change the brain networks implicated in this process. During ...the training period, the participants were instructed to up-regulate their right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) activity according to real-time functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) neurofeedback signals, and there was no emotional element. The results showed that the training significantly increased emotion regulation, resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) within the emotion regulation network (ERN) and frontoparietal network (FPN), and rsFC between the ERN and amygdala; however, training did not influence the rsFC between the FPN and the amygdala. However, self-regulation training on rDLPFC significantly improved emotion regulation and generally increased the rsFCs within the networks; the rsFC between the ERN and amygdala was also selectively increased. The present study also described a safe approach that may improve emotion regulation through self-regulation training on non-emotional brain regions.
People with high working memory (WM) capacity tend to respond proactively and experience a decrease in undesired emotions, implying the potential influence of WM training on emotional responses. ...Although training emotional WM could enhance emotional control, the training also improves emotional response itself. Thus, the far-transfer effects of non-emotional WM training on emotional responses remain an open question. In the present study, two experiments were conducted to detect these effects. The Preliminary experiment matched the expectations of the gains of the training tasks between the experimental and active control groups (
= 33). In Experiments 1 and 2, participants performed 7-day and 15-day training procedures, respectively. Results indicated that after a 7-day training, non-emotional WM training (
= 17) marginally reduced individuals' emotional responses compared with the active control group (
= 18); importantly, this improvement became significant after a 15-day training (
= 20,
= 18). A combination analysis for Experiments 1 and 2 showed that training gains on WM performance were significantly related to reduced emotional responses (
= -0.359), indicating a dosage effect. Therefore, non-emotional WM training provides a safe and effective way to enhance adaptive emotional responses.
Information in working memory (WM) can guide visual attention towards matched features. While recent work has suggested that cognitive control can act upon WM guidance of visual attention, little is ...known about how the state of memorized items retaining in WM contribute to its influence over attention. Here, we disentangle the role of inhibition and maintenance on WM-guided attention with a novel delayed match-to-sample dual-task. The results showed that active inhibition facilitated searching by diminishing sensory processing and deterring attentional guidance, indexed by an attenuated P1 amplitude and unaffected N2pc amplitude, respectively. By contrast, active maintenance impaired searching by attentional guidance while sensory processing remained unimpaired, indexed by an enhanced N2pc amplitude and unchanged P1 amplitude, respectively. Furthermore, multivariate pattern analyses could sucessfully decode maintenance and inhibition, suggesting that two states differed in modulating visual attention. We propose that remembered contents may play an anchoring role for attentional guidance, and the state of those contents retaining in WM may directly influence the shifting of attention. The maintenance could guide attention by accessing input information, while the inhibition could deter the shifting of attention by suppressing sensory processing. These findings provide a possible reinterpretation of the influence of WM on attention.
An increased reaction time often occurs after error responses (post-error slowing, PES). However, the role of top-down regulation in post-error processing remains to be debated. Impairing cognitive ...control function through acute stress would help to investigate the role and stage of top-down adaptive regulation in post-error processing. Here, we recruited 50 healthy male participants who were randomly assigned to either a stress condition (Trier Social Stress Task, TSST) or a control condition (control version of the TSST). A color-word Stroop task with different response stimulus intervals (RSIs) was used to investigate the effects of acute stress on different stages of post-error processing. The results showed that cortisol, heart rate, perceived stress level, and negative affect were higher in the stress group (
n
= 24) than in the control group (
n
= 26), indicating successful stress induction. The accuracy of post-error response in the control group increased with the extension of RSI, and the reaction time decreased. However, the accuracy of 1,200 ms RSI was close to that of 700 ms RSI in the stress group but was significantly lower than that in the control group. The results suggested that acute stress caused the impairment of top-down adaptive regulation after error. Furthermore, our study manifested adaptive adjustment only in the late stages of post-error processing, indicating the phasic and adaptive features of post-error adjustment.
The timing dynamics of regulating negative emotion with expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal were investigated in a Chinese sample. Event-Related Potentials were recorded while subjects ...were required to view, suppress emotion expression to, or reappraise emotional pictures. The results showed a similar reduction in self-reported negative emotion during both strategies. Additionally, expressive suppression elicited larger amplitudes than reappraisal in central-frontal P3 component (340–480 ms). More importantly, the Late Positive Potential (LPP) amplitudes were decreased in each 200 ms of the 800–1600 ms time intervals during suppression vs. viewing conditions. In contrast, LPP amplitudes were similar for reappraisal and viewing conditions in all the time windows, except for the decreased amplitudes during reappraisal in the 1400–1600 ms. The LPP (but not P3) amplitudes were positively related to negative mood ratings, whereas the amplitudes of P3, rather than LPP, predict self-reported expressive suppression. These results suggest that expressive suppression decreases emotion responding more rapidly than reappraisal, at the cost of greater cognitive resource involvements in Chinese individuals.
The present study investigated how pubertal development and sex interact to influence humans' emotion susceptibility during adolescence. Event-related potentials were recorded for highly emotional, ...mildly emotional and neutral stimuli in positive and negative blocks, when 73 adolescents (36 pre-/early pubertal students, 19 boys, 10-12 years old; 37 mid-/late pubertal students, 18 boys, 11-13 years old) performed an implicit emotion task. Behavioral analysis showed higher positive mood ratings for pre-/early compared to mid-/late pubertal subjects, irrespective of sex and block. ERP analysis demonstrated increasing Late Positive Potential (LPP) amplitudes from neutral, Mildly Positive (MP) to Highly Positive (HP) stimuli in pre-/early pubertal, but not in mid-/late pubertal adolescents. However, girls exhibited higher P3a amplitudes during mid-/late relative to pre-/early puberty for negative stimuli irrespective of intensity; while this puberty effect was absent in boys. In addition, girls compared to boys exhibited a more pronounced LPP enhancement effect for Highly Negative (HN) stimuli and a lower threshold of responding to negative stimuli in P3b amplitudes, regardless of puberty. These results suggest that, though there is a puberty-independent sensitivity to negative stimuli in girls relative to boys, puberty selectively intensifies girls' attention bias for negative stimuli and reduces experiential sensitivity to positive stimuli in both sexes. The implication of these results for the sex-related psychopathology during adolescence were discussed.
Response errors often cause individuals to slow down their subsequent reactions (posterror slowing PES). Despite intensive investigations on PES, the adaptive nature of PES remains unresolved. Here, ...we systematically examined this issue by manipulating response-stimulus intervals (RSIs) and examining their influence on behaviors and neural dynamics of PES. Behavioral and electrophysiological (EEG) measures were recorded while male and female human participants performed a four-choice flanker task as RSIs were manipulated. Behaviorally, PES showed maladaptive features at short RSIs but some adaptive features at long RSIs. EEG results indicated that RSIs did not affect basic error-related processing, indexed by the same pattern in the contrasts between flanker errors and correct responses on the error-related negativity (ERN), error positivity (Pe), or theta band, no matter at short or long RSIs. However, RSIs significantly influenced postflanker error attentional adjustment, motor inhibition, and sensory sensitivity. At short RSIs, compared with postcorrect trials, postflanker error trials elicited larger beta band power and smaller P1 amplitude but did not affect alpha band power, suggesting that motor processing was inhibited, and subsequent sensory processing was impaired, but no attentional adjustment occurred. By contrast, at long RSIs, postflanker error trials led to smaller alpha and beta band power but did not affect P1 amplitude, indicating that attentional adjustment but not motor inhibition occurred, and sensory processing was not impaired. Together with behavioral results, the current study demonstrated that PES was adaptive at long RSIs but maladaptive at short RSIs. We further discuss the role of central resources in the adaptability of PES.
Abstract
Feedback-related negativity (FRN) is believed to encode reward prediction error (RPE), a term describing whether the outcome is better or worse than expected. However, some studies suggest ...that it may reflect unsigned prediction error (UPE) instead. Some disagreement remains as to whether FRN is sensitive to the interaction of outcome valence and prediction error (PE) or merely responsive to the absolute size of PE. Moreover, few studies have compared FRN in appetitive and aversive domains to clarify the valence effect or examine PE’s quantitative modulation. To investigate the impact of valence and parametrical PE on FRN, we varied the prediction and feedback magnitudes within a probabilistic learning task in valence (gain and loss domains, Experiment 1) and non-valence contexts (pure digits, Experiment 2). Experiment 3 was identical to Experiment 1 except that some blocks emphasized outcome valence, while others highlighted predictive accuracy. Experiments 1 and 2 revealed a UPE encoder; Experiment 3 found an RPE encoder when valence was emphasized and a UPE encoder when predictive accuracy was highlighted. In this investigation, we demonstrate that FRN is sensitive to outcome valence and expectancy violation, exhibiting a preferential response depending on the dimension that is emphasized.
Previous studies have shown that alertness is closely related to executive control function, but its impact on components of post-error adjustment is unknown. This study applied the Attentional ...Networks Test and the Four-choice Flanker task with three response stimulus intervals (RSIs) to explore the correlation between alertness and post-error adjustment. The linear mixed-effects model of alertness and RSI on the post-error processing indicators showed a significant negative correlation between the alertness and post-error slowing (PES) under 200 ms RSI , as well as between alertness and post-error improvement in accuracy (PIA) under both 700 ms RSI and 1200 ms RSI. Participants with lower alertness showed larger post-error slowing in the early stages, while those with higher alertness had smaller PIA in later stages. This study revealed the effects of alertness on different processing components of post-error adjustment. The control strategies utilized by individuals with high and low levels of alertness differed in preparation for performance monitoring. Alertness improved post-error response speed in a task-unspecific manner, but not post-error adaptation.
PDF
