Ocular signatures of proactive versus reactive cognitive control in young adults

During the execution of a cognitive task, the brain maintains contextual information to guide behavior and achieve desired goals. The AX-Continuous Performance Task is used to study proactive versus reactive cognitive control. Young adults tend to behave proactively in standard testing conditions. However, it remains unclear how interindividual variability (e.g., in cognitive and motivational factors) may drive people into more reactive or proactive control under the same task demands. We investigated the use of control strategies in a large population of healthy young adults. We computed the proactive behavioral index and consequently divided participants into proactive, reactive, and intermediate groups. We found that reactive participants were generally slower, presented lower context sensitivity, and larger response variability. Pupillary changes and blink rate index cognitive effort allocation. We measured, concomitantly to the task, the pupil size and frequency of blinks associated with the cue maintenance and response intervals. During the cue period, nonfrequent, nontarget cues led to increased pupil dilation and number of blinks in all participants. During the response interval, we found more errors and increased pupil dilation to the probe when all participants had to overcome a response bias generated by the frequent cue. Only reactive participants showed larger response-related pupil when they had to overcome a response bias related to the frequent probe. Contrary to expectations, groups did not differ in ocular measures in the cue period. In conclusion, interindividual differences in cognitive control between healthy adults can be mapped onto different patterns of effort allocation indexed by the pupil.     

RT distributional analysis of cognitive-control-related brain activity in first-episode schizophrenia

Impairments in cognitive control are a defining feature of schizophrenia. Aspects of cognitive control include proactive control—the maintenance of task rules or goals to bias attention and maintain preparedness—and reactive control—the engagement of attention in reaction to changing cognitive demands. Proactive control is thought to be particularly impaired in schizophrenia. We sought to examine proactive and reactive control in schizophrenia, as measured by reaction time (RT) variability, and especially long RTs, which are thought to represent lapses in proactive control, during the Stroop paradigm. Furthermore, we sought to examine the neural underpinnings of lapses in proactive control and the subsequent engagement of reactive control in those with schizophrenia, as compared to healthy controls, using fMRI. We found that patients with schizophrenia displayed greater RT variability and more extremely long RTs than controls suggesting that proactive control was weaker in the schizophrenia than in the control group. All of the subjects engaged regions of the cognitive control network during long RTs, consistent with an engagement of reactive control following a failure in proactive control on these trials. The schizophrenia group, however, displayed significantly diminished activity in these regions relative to controls. Our results suggest increased failures in proactive control, but also impaired reactive control, in schizophrenia as compared to healthy subjects.     

“Cold” Cognitive Control and Attentional Symptoms in Anxiety: Perceptions Versus Performance

Clinically significant anxiety is associated with an array of attentional symptoms (e.g., difficulty concentrating; unwanted thought) that are subjectively experienced as severe. However, neuropsychological findings are mixed with respect to the presence of cognitive deficits that can account for these symptoms. Contextualizing predictions from established clinical theories (e.g., Attentional Control Theory) within contemporary, neurobiologically derived models of cognitive control (Dual Mechanisms of Control Theory), the present study investigated the relationship between “cold” proactive and reactive cognitive control, task effort, and subjective attentional symptoms (difficulty concentrating; unwanted thought) in a mixed clinical sample of individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and/or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and a comparison sample of healthy controls. Clinical status moderated the relationship between attentional symptoms (attentional focusing and trait worry) and proactive cognitive control response time. Clinical status also moderated the relationship between trait worry and task effort. Higher trait worry was associated with slower proactive control and lower effort in healthy participants, but faster proactive control in clinical participants. Self-reported attentional focusing showed differential validity vis-à-vis proactive control response time in clinical versus healthy participants. Post-hoc conditional effects analysis suggested more accurate self-appraisals in healthy controls, but was not significant after correction for multiple comparisons. Preliminary evidence suggested that differences in task effort in anxious versus healthy adults may relate to subjective attentional symptoms in GAD and OCD.     

Working memory impairments in schizophrenia: a meta-analysis

Working memory (WM) deficit is a cardinal cognitive symptom of schizophrenia, but the differences among the tasks and measures used to assess WM make it difficult to compare across studies. The authors conducted a meta-analytic review to address 3 major questions: (a) Do patients with schizophrenia show WM deficits across diverse methodology; (b) Is WM deficit supramodal; and (c) Does the WM deficit worsen with longer delays? The results indicate that significant WM deficit was present in schizophrenia patients in all modalities examined. Increasing delay beyond 1 s did not influence the performance difference between schizophrenia patients and healthy control participants in WM. These results suggest that WM deficit in schizophrenia is modality independent and that encoding and/or early part of maintenance may be problematic.     

预期惩罚调节认知控制权衡：来自行为和fNIRS的证据

为了探讨预期惩罚是如何影响认知控制权衡,本研究采用fNIRS技术考察被试在完成有惩罚和无惩罚AX-CPT任务时的行为表现和大脑激活模式。行为结果发现：与无惩罚的基线条件相比,惩罚条件下个体偏向主动性控制。脑成像结果发现：与无惩罚的基线条件相比,惩罚条件下大脑前额叶皮层在线索阶段处于负激活状态。这说明,惩罚条件下在线索阶段个体需要更多的注意资源,因此,脑成像的结果也表明惩罚使被试更偏向主动性控制。     

主动性和反应性认知控制的权衡机制及影响因素

主动性控制和反应性控制是认知控制研究的新视角。前者通过在反应前维持目标相关信息的表征来预防冲突, 后者在反应时重激活目标相关信息以解决冲突。个体能够在这两种认知控制间进行权衡从而形成最优反应。通过AX-CPT等实验范式, 辅以ERP、fMRI技术可分离两种认知控制, 并观察到认知控制相关的脑区在激活时间和强度上的差异。个体生理发展、认知因素(期望、流体智力、训练)、非认知因素(情绪、动机等)均能影响认知控制的权衡。未来的研究应多关注这一权衡的内在神经机制和认知机制, 并与传统认知控制研究相结合, 在理论和应用上取得更进一步的发展。     

Genetic architecture of context processing in late middle age: more than one underlying mechanism

Studies comparing young and older adults suggest a deficit in processing context information as a key mechanism underlying cognitive aging. However, the genetic architecture of context processing has not been examined. Consistent with previous results, we found evidence of functionally dissociable components of context processing accuracy in 1127 late middle-aged twins ages 51-60. One component emphasizes use of context cues to prepare responses (proactive cognitive control), and the other emphasizes adjustment of responses after probes are presented (reactive control). Approximately one-quarter of the variance in each component was accounted for by genes. Multivariate twin analysis indicated that genetic factors underlying two important components of context processing were independent of one another, thus implicating more than one underlying mechanism. Slower reaction time (RT) on noncontext processing trials was positively correlated with errors on the strongly proactive control component on which young adults outperform older adults, but RT was negatively correlated with errors on the strongly reactive control component on which older adults perform better. Although this RT measure was uncorrelated with chronological age in our age-homogeneous sample, slower RT was associated with performance patterns that were more like older adults. However, this did not generalize to other processing speed measures. Genetic correlations, which reflect shared genetic variance, paralleled the phenotypic correlations. There was also a positive genetic correlation between general cognitive ability and accuracy on the proactive control component, but there were still mostly distinct genetic influences underlying these measures. In contrast, the reactive control component was unrelated to general cognitive ability.     

音乐训练对大学生执行功能的影响

近年来大量研究发现音乐训练对认知能力的具有积极影响,一些理论认为音乐训练的广泛迁移效应是通过执行功能起中介作用,但音乐训练与执行功能的关系至今仍存争议。研究将执行功能分为抑制控制、工作记忆和认知灵活性三个子成分,并将抑制控制进一步细分为注意抑制和反应抑制,同时区分工作记忆中主动性控制和反应性控制两种认知过程。通过对比音乐组和控制组在执行功能各任务（Go/No-go, Stroop, AX-CPT, Task-switching）上的行为表现来系统考察音乐训练与执行功能的关系。结果表明音乐训练对执行功能不同子成分的影响具有差异性,其促进效应主要体现在抑制控制中的注意抑制和工作记忆中的主动性控制,对抑制控制中的反应抑制、工作记忆中的反应性控制和认知灵活性影响较小。     

Reactive and proactive control in incarcerated and community adolescents and young adults

This study compared the cognitive control skills of male incarcerated adolescents (n = 44), male control adolescents (n = 33), male incarcerated young adults (n = 41), and male control young adults (n = 35) using the AX-continuous performance test (AX-CPT). This test measures proactive control (the ability to maintain a mental representation of goal-related information in preparation for a behavioral response) and reactive control (the ability to activate goal-related information in response to an external trigger). Incarcerated individuals had more difficulty implementing proactive control, whereas control individuals had more difficulty implementing reactive control. Adolescents had more difficulty with both reactive and proactive control compared with young adults, suggesting that both skills improve with age. Additional analyses indicated that the effect of age on proactive control was due to the presence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, whereas the effect of age on reactive control appeared to be a natural developmental trend that could not be explained by other variables. These findings are considered in relation to the dual mechanisms of control theory [Braver, T. S., Gray, J. R., & Burgess, G. C. (2007). Explaining the many varieties of working memory variation: Dual mechanisms of cognitive control. In A. R. A. Conway, C. Jarrold, M. J. Kane, A. Miyake, & J. N. Towse (Eds.), Variation in Working Memory. New York: Oxford University Press.].     

Dissociable influences of reward motivation and positive emotion on cognitive control

It is becoming increasingly appreciated that affective and/or motivational influences contribute strongly to goal-oriented cognition and behavior. An unresolved question is whether emotional manipulations (i.e., direct induction of affectively valenced subjective experience) and motivational manipulations (e.g., delivery of performance-contingent rewards and punishments) have similar or distinct effects on cognitive control. Prior work has suggested that reward motivation can reliably enhance a proactive mode of cognitive control, whereas other evidence is suggestive that positive emotion improves cognitive flexibility, but reduces proactive control. However, a limitation of the prior research is that reward motivation and positive emotion have largely been studied independently. Here, we directly compared the effects of positive emotion and reward motivation on cognitive control with a tightly matched, within-subjects design, using the AX-continuous performance task paradigm, which allows for relative measurement of proactive versus reactive cognitive control. High-resolution pupillometry was employed as a secondary measure of cognitive dynamics during task performance. Robust increases in behavioral and pupillometric indices of proactive control were observed with reward motivation. The effects of positive emotion were much weaker, but if anything, also reflected enhancement of proactive control, a pattern that diverges from some prior findings. These results indicate that reward motivation has robust influences on cognitive control, while also highlighting the complexity and heterogeneity of positive-emotion effects. The findings are discussed in terms of potential neurobiological mechanisms.     

The variable nature of cognitive control in a university sample of young adult drinkers

The current study investigates the effect of task‐irrelevant alcohol distractors on cognitive control and its interaction with heavy/light drinking in a group of young adult drinkers. It was hypothesised that alcohol distractors would result in a reduction of proactive control (reduced conflict adaptation) especially in heavy drinkers. 60 participants took part in a face‐word version of the Stroop task preceded by an alcohol or neutral image. Light drinkers only showed a congruency effect which indicated a greater level of proactive control. Heavy drinkers showed a greater level of reactive control in which the conflict adaptation effect occurred with neutral images but not with alcohol images. Possible explanations are discussed.     

Training the removal of negative information from working memory: A preliminary investigation of a working memory bias modification task

Rumination in depressed adults is associated with a bias toward retaining negative information in working memory. We developed a task designed to modify this cognitive bias by having subjects repeatedly practice removing negative words from working memory, thereby enabling them to retain positive and neutral words. To assess the efficacy of this task, we recruited 60 adults who reported elevated repetitive negative thought (RNT) and randomly assigned them to receive a single administration of either the working memory bias modification (WMBM) task or a control task. Subjects in the WMBM condition exhibited greater reduction in proactive interference for negative information than did those in the control condition. These results suggest that the WMBM task reduces biased retention of negative information in working memory and, thus, may be useful in investigating the possible causal role of this cognitive bias in RNT or depression.     

自闭谱系障碍:一种主动性的社会认知控制缺陷

认知控制是一项高级的认知能力,是个体执行功能的一部分。包括认知控制在内的执行功能缺陷被认为是自闭谱系障碍的主要原因之一。本研究基于双重认知控制模型,通过非社会性和社会性两个领域的任务比较了自闭谱系障碍儿童（ASD）与正常发展儿童（TD）的认知控制能力的差异。结果发现：（1）ASD儿童在非社会性领域的认知控制上不存在缺陷,ASD儿童在社会性领域的认知控制上仅表现出了主动性认知控制缺陷,不存在反应性认知控制缺陷;(２)ASD儿童的主动性控制并不像TD儿童一样出现两个领域的加工分化,他们没有像TD儿童一样,表现出社会性领域的主动性控制的优势;（３）社会性领域的主动性控制和反应性控制可以显著从负正两个方向上预测自闭症状的严重程度。本研究认为,可以把ASD看成是一种主动性的社会认知控制缺陷。社会性领域的认知控制指标可为ASD的诊断与训练提供重要参考。     

Somatosensory processing and schizophrenia liability: proprioception, exteroceptive sensitivity, and graphesthesia performance in the biological relatives of schizophrenia patients

In the present study, the authors examined somatosensory processing in 30 biological relatives of persons with schizophrenia (hereafter called "schizophrenia relatives"), 30 biological relatives of persons with bipolar affective disorder (psychiatric family control subjects), and 30 healthy control subjects with no family history of psychopathology. All 3 groups completed a weight discrimination task, a 2-point discrimination task, and a complex cognitive somatosensory task (i.e., graphesthesia). The schizophrenia relatives performed significantly worse on all 3 somatosensory tasks compared with both the healthy control subjects and the bipolar relatives. The healthy control subjects and psychiatric family control subjects showed no significant differences on any of the somatosensory tasks. Within the weight discrimination and 2-point discrimination tasks, schizophrenia relatives showed group differences on the d' index, the measure of sensitivity, whereas all 3 groups did not differ on lnbeta, the measure of response bias, suggesting a genuine difference in weight and touch sensitivity. The d' value of the weight discrimination task was significantly associated with both the cognitive-perceptual factor and negative symptom factor of the clinical questionnaire (e.g., Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire; SPQ), whereas the 2-point discrimination d' value and graphesthesia scores were significantly associated only with the cognitive-perceptual factor of the SPQ. Implications for the possible relation between somatosensory task performance and schizophrenia liability are discussed.     

Reactive and proactive control adjustments under increased depressive symptoms: Insights from the classic and emotional-face Stroop task

The current research investigated differences in reactive and proactive cognitive control as a function of depressive symptomatology. Three participant groups with varying symptom levels (Beck Depression Inventory–II, BDI–II score) completed both the classic and an emotional-face Stroop task separately under speed and accuracy instructions. All groups made equivalent speed–accuracy trade-offs independent of task, suggesting that proactive adjustments are unaffected by depressive symptoms. Additionally, groups made equivalent reactive control adjustments (Stroop effects, congruency sequence effects) in the classic Stroop task, suggesting that these reactive control adjustments are spared across a wide range of BDI–II scorers. In contrast, the high BDI–II group displayed a selective impairment in the resolution of conflict in the emotional-face Stroop task. Thus, while proactive control and many aspects of reactive control were unaffected by the level of depressive symptoms, specific impairments occurred when current task demands required the trial-to-trial regulation of emotional processing.     

阈下奖励调节认知控制的权衡

本研究采用奖励版的AX-CPT任务, 通过控制奖励线索和反馈的呈现方式, 设置出基线、阈上奖励、阈下奖励三种条件, 考察习得的奖励联结和奖励动机能否以潜意识的方式影响认知任务的表现和认知控制的权衡。结果显示：奖励线索只在阈上呈现时提高AX序列的任务表现; 与基线条件相比, 阈上和阈下奖励条件下认知控制的权衡均偏向主动性控制, 且这种偏向在两者间无显著差异。这表明习得的阈下奖励线索可以调节认知控制的权衡, 使被试像阈上奖励时那样偏向主动性控制。     

冲突控制是领域一般性的还是领域特殊性的?

本研究采用整合交叉范式整合了Stroop任务和Simon任务,在双重认知控制的框架下探讨冲突控制是领域一般性的还是领域特殊性的问题。结果发现:序列一致性效应只出现在任务内,不出现于任务间,显示对冲突的反应性控制具有领域特殊性;比例一致性效应不仅出现在同种任务中,而且扩展到不同任务中,显示对冲突的主动性控制具有领域一般性。本研究结果对于理解认知控制的本质和机制具有重要意义。     

冲动特质对青少年认知控制的影响——基于双重认知控制理论

根据双重认知控制理论,抑制控制分为主动性控制和反应性控制。为了探索冲动特质青少年究竟在哪个抑制控制成分存在不足,本研究用冲动性人格量表(BIS-11)选取了高冲动特质和低冲动特质青少年,并记录了他们在完成AX-CPT任务时的反应时和正确率。结果显示:与低冲动个体相比,高冲动个体在BX试次(主动性控制)上的反应时和正确率以及线索辨别力指数上的表现均差于低冲动个体,而在AY试次(反应性控制)上的反应时和正确率以及探测敏感性指标上的表现与低冲动个体没有显著差异。这些结果说明,与低冲动特质青少年相比,高冲动特质青少年的反应性控制保存较好,但主动性控制能力表现出不足。     

Aerobic Fitness Is Associated With Cognitive Control Strategy in Preadolescent Children

The authors used a conditional accuracy function (CAF) method to compute the mean accuracy of multiple reaction time ranges, to investigate the association between aerobic fitness and the utilization of cognitive control strategy during preadolescence. Thirty-eight higher- and lower-fit children were grouped according to their cardiorespiratory capacity (VO_2max) and completed a modified flanker task. Seventeen young adults were recruited as a reference group of maturation. The results showed that higher-fit children exhibited an adult-like performance pattern, and demonstrated increased overall response accuracy compared to lower-fit children, with a disproportionally larger increase in individual responses when the time allowed for discriminative processing was constrained. These findings suggest that aerobic fitness is associated with enhanced cognitive control and development of a more proactive control strategy during flanker task in preadolescent children.     

Going,going, gone? Proactive control prevents the congruency sequence effect from rapid decay

The congruency sequence effect, the finding of a reduced congruency effect following incongruent trials in conflict tasks, has received considerable attention in the research on cognitive control over the last two decades. This effect can reflect either the expectancy-guided, preparatory biasing of attention in anticipation of the upcoming stimulus (i.e. proactive control), or the phasic enhancement of the attentional set in response to conflict on the previous trial (i.e. reactive control). A recent study by Egner et al. in Front Psychol 1 (2010) set out to contrast these two alternatives, by exploring the congruency sequence effect across a wide range of inter-trial intervals. It was found that congruency sequence effects were subject to rapid decay over time. This decay fits well with the notion of reactive control, while at the same time speaking against the involvement of proactive regulation—which should also (and even mainly) be evident at longer intervals. In the present study, we first replicate the reduction of the congruency sequence effect with increasing inter-trial interval in a face-word Stroop task. In a second experiment, we show that congruency sequence effects are observed at longer intervals, too, when the proportion of trials with the longest inter-trial interval is increased. Our findings indicate that proactive control can prevent the congruency sequence effect from decaying rapidly.