Cognitive Control Flashcards
input
External input might include things like visual or auditory information (e.g., a traffic light changing from green to red).
Internal input could include thoughts, memories, or emotions (e.g., remembering a deadline or feeling anxious about an upcoming task).
often very complex, loads of stimuli processing
output
External output might include physical actions, such as pressing a button, speaking, or moving your hand to write something.
Internal output could involve changes in mental processes, such as adjusting focus or rethinking a decision.
habits
Action is automatically triggered by a stimulus or context
* Not under voluntary control of a desired outcome/goal/reward
goal-directed action
Action to achieve a desired outcome/goal/reward
* Requires knowledge of a relationship between action and outcome
* Cognitive control is needed for goals to influence behaviour
two prefrontal control systems
- goal-directed behaviour
- conflict monitoring
goal-directed behaviour
lateral prefrontal cortex, frontal pole
Maintenance of goals in working memory
* Filtering of information according to goals, and
goal-dependent initiation, inhibition, and
shifting of behavior
* Planning and organization of multiple goals of
different complexity
conflict monitoring
Medial PFC (incl. anterior cingulate cortex [ACC])
* Monitoring of goal achievement (error
detection, negative feedback, response conflict,
surprise)
* Modulation of the degree and allocation of
cognitive control
cognitive control deficits after PFC lesions
No directly obvious impairments of perception, language, long-term memory, or motor skills.
* Complex, idiosyncratic impairments in goal-directed initiation, inhibition, and shifting of behavior (great difficulties in managing daily life), e.g.:
* Perseveration (persisting in a response even after being told that it is incorrect).
* Apathy, distractibility, impulsivity.
* Inability to make decisions, plan actions, understand consequences of actions, follow rules.
* Disregard social conventions, are socially inappropriate.
environmental dependency syndrome
Stimulus-driven behavior: actions guided
not by the patient’s own goals but by
what is available in the immediate
surrounding environment
* Imitation behavior: for example,
imitating the physician (hand gestures,
body postures, drawing, combing hair,
chewing on a pencil, speaking, singing,
etc.)
* Utilization behavior: abnormal reliance
on environmental stimuli to trigger
behavior (e.g., repeatedly drinking from a
glass without being thirsty)
relative PFC size does not explain human cognition
Only absolute PFC size is larger in
humans than in non-human primates
but proportions are similar across
primates
but greater relative PFC white matter volume (axonal connections) in human PFC compared to other primates
delayed-response task
Require to retain a stimulus attribute (e.g.,
location) not currently present in the
environment ”in mind” over a delay period
* Performance on delayed-response tasks is
impaired by PFC lesions
* In associative-memory control task, reward is
paired with a cue (long-term memory
association)
* Performance on the associative-memory
control task is not impaired by PFC lesions
* Delayed-response tasks are widely used to
study the neural bases of working memory
delay-period activity
Oculomotor delayed response (ODR) task: keep spatial location (cue) in mind to direct a later eye movement (response)
* Lateral PFC neurons fire continuously during delay
(between cue and response) period for their preferred location
* Delay-period activity also for various other memorized stimulus attributes and other response modalitiesSuccessive memorization of two
stimulus attributes: first identity, second location
* Some lateral PFC neurons retain identity information, others location information, and others
both
* Task-specific selectivity of lateral
PFC neurons
* Flexibility: when task changes, these neurons can retain information about different stimulus attributes
* Suggests that these neurons represent task goals rather than task-relevant information per se
integrative model of goal-directed processing
Lateral PFC: sustained representation of task goal
* Posterior cortex (higher-level sensory areas):
representation of task-relevant information (e.g., stimulus
representations and knowledge in long-term memory)
Selection of task-relevant information: Dynamic
filtering
- Lateral PFC: selection of different types of information
according to dynamic goals (attentional mechanism) in posterior cortex - Posterior cortex (higher-level sensory areas): inhibition
of task-irrelevant and enhancement of task-relevant
information
dynamic filtering
Attentional selection: Enhancement and
suppression
* Task goals modulate posterior cortex: fMRI activity in
category-selective higher-level visual cortex
* Category-specific enhancement of task-relevant
information and suppression of task-irrelevant
information (relative to passive viewing)
Role of lateral PFC in attentional selection
* Filtering deficits with lateral PFC lesions: ERPs (P100)
reveal reduced suppression of unattended tones and
reduced enhancement of attended tones
* Repetitive TMS (rTMS) to lateral PFC reduces
attentional modulation of P100 in feature-based
attention task
* Deficits primarily reflect reduced inhibition of
irrelevant information (e.g., larger P100 for
