Cognitive Control Flashcards
When do we need cognitive control?
- Tasks that involve planning or decision making
- Tasks that involve error correction or troubleshooting
- Learning, using, remembering or switching between roles
- Novel, dangerous or technically difficult situations
- Situations which require the overcoming of a strong habitual response, resisting temptation, or ignoring irrelevant information
What areas of the frontal lobe are involved in cognitive control?
Lateral prefrontal cortex
Ventromedial prefrontal cortex
Medial frontal cortex
Who was Phineas Gage?
Man who was impaled through the brain and survived
What was ok with Gage after the accident?
Long-term memory intact
General intelligence intact
Could walk, talk
What was not ok with Gage after the accident?
- Losing aspects of humanity (impulse control)
- Impatient, shift in personality
- Stimulus-bound, utilization behavior
- Child-like
- Unable to plan and self-regulate
What part of the brain is in charge of working memory?
Lateral prefrontal cortex
What is working memory important for?
It is important for integrating current perceptual information with stored knowledge (Manipulation of information in memory)
What is the delayed response (WM) task?
Must remember location of food during delay
There is no explicit cue during the delay which requires working memory
What lesion would disrupt performance in the delayed response task?
Prefrontal lesions
What is the associative memory task?
Must find food based on visual cue
Food reward always associated with particular cue
Cues always visible, but associations must have been previously learned which requires long-term memory
What lesion wouldn’t disrupt performance in the associative memory task?
Prefrontal lesions
What is the fMRI example of working memory and the prefrontal cortex?
Task: Was face part of studied set?
- FFA: activity only when faces being presented
- Lateral PFC: sustained activity during delay period
What did the fMRI example tell us about working memory?
Lateral PFC is more active for higher working memory load (works harder when you have to remember more things)
What is task switching?
Often multiple different tasks simultaneously available to perform
- there is a cost for switching between tasks
What is the Dynamic Filtering Hypothesis?
Prefrontal cortex selects information that is most relevant for your current demands
What does the Dynamic Filtering Hypothesis require?
Requires:
- Top-down control
- Select task-relevant information (facilitation)
- Suppress task-irrelevant information (inhibition)
What is an ERP example of Filtering?
ERP responses to auditory clicks (unattended)
Patients w/ damage to auditory cortex –> reduced response
Patients w/ damage to frontal cortex –> amplified response (can’t inhibit)
What is an fMRI example Filtering?
Remember scenes –> enhancement of scene processing compared to passive
Ignore scenes –> suppression of scene processing compared to passive
What did the fMRI example of Filtering show us?
Older adults don’t show suppression (PFC affected w/ aging –> less inhibition)
What is a test of cognitive control?
Wisconsin card sorting task
What is the Wisconsin card sorting task?
- Cards contain objects varying in shape color or number
- Cards presented 1 at a time, subject must decide how to sort
- Experiment sets rule
What did we learn from the Wisconsin card sorting task?
Frontal patients perseverate (do not adapt, continue to apply initial rule)
What is the Stop-Signal or Go-NoGo task?
Respond as quickly as possible on “go” trials
Suppress response on “stop” (no-go) trials (sometimes fail to stop)
What did fMRI evidence from Stop-Signal or Go-NoGo task show us?
Inferior frontal cortex important for inhibitory “stop” signal
What is the definition of decision?
Selection of 1 option among others based on anticipated consequences
What is definition of a reward?
Value of consequences
Where in the brain do we value judgments or comparisons?
Orbitofrontal cortex
What is the definition of prediction error?
Difference between expected and actual reward (dopamine neurons fire accordingly)
What is required to suppress temptation?
Cognitive control
- socially inappropriate behaviors
- illegal/immoral behaviors
- delayed gratification
Where is the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) located?
Medial Frontal Cortex
What does the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) do?
The Oh Sh*t region
What is an ERP example of performance/conflict monitoring?
Error-related negativity (ERN) - push button that corresponds with middle letter
- big response for errors
- only if subject realizes it was an error
- localized to anterior cingulate
