Recent evidence suggests that hand-stimulus proximity enhances the visuo-motor Simon effect. The present study used event-related potentials (ERP) to examine the timing at which hand-stimulus proximity modulates the Simon effect. The results show that the P1 and N1 components were not modulated by hand-stimulus proximity, suggesting that early sensory processing is not altered by hand-stimulus proximity. However, the interference effect (the difference between incompatible versus compatible trials) on the N2 component was significantly attenuated near the hands compared to far from the hands, indicating that hand-stimulus proximity impairs conflict monitoring. We also found significant effects on a later component, as the P3 was reduced and had a shorter latency for the hand-proximal condition relative to the hand-distal condition. These new findings suggest that the critical stage at which hand-stimulus proximity affects cognitive processing lies past the early perceptual processing, acting instead on later stages of processing related to executive functioning.

Individuals must constantly adjust their behavior to adapt to the changing environment, and this dynamic adjustment ability has been studied through the conflict adaptation effect (CAE). We explored the resting state brain network underlying individual differences in CAE. The functional connection strength between dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and bilateral insula or right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) was negatively correlated with CAE, whereas the connection strength between DLPFC and left inferior parietal lobule was positively correlated with CAE. We speculated that, when faced with conflict, individuals with low CAE employ salience network to detect conflict, and then control is performed by DLPFC; in individuals with high CAEs who maintain a high level of control in all tasks, conflict is resolved mainly by the central executive network. In other words, in conflict tasks, individuals with high CAEs adopt proactive control strategies, but their counterparts with low CAEs employ reactive control strategies.

Incongruency between print color and the semantic meaning of a word in a classical Stroop task activates the human conflict monitoring system and triggers a behavioral conflict. Conflict adaptation has been suggested to mediate the cortical processing of neural oscillations in such a conflict situation. However, the basic mechanisms that underlie the influence of conflict adaptation on the changes of neural oscillations are not clear. In the present study, electroencephalography (EEG) data were recorded from sixteen healthy human participants while they were performing a color-word Stroop task within a novel look-to-do transition design that included two response modalities. In the 'look' condition, participants were informed to look at the color of presented words but no responses were required; in the 'do' condition, they were informed to make arranged responses to the color of presented words. Behaviorally, a reliable conflict adaptation was observed. Time-frequency analysis revealed that (1) in the 'look' condition, theta-band activity in the left- and right-frontal regions reflected a conflict-related process at a response inhibition level; and (2) in the 'do' condition, both theta-band activity in the left-frontal region and alpha-band activity in the left-, right-, and centro-frontal regions reflected a process of conflict control, which triggered neural and behavioral adaptation. Taken together, these results suggest that there are frontal mechanisms involving neural oscillations that can mediate response inhibition processes and control behavioral conflict.

Conflict control refers to an individual's goal-directed cognitive control and self-regulation of behavior. The neurodevelopment related to conflict control is crucial for the development of cognitive and emotional abilities in children. In the current study, preadolescent children and adults completed the Simon and Stroop tasks in emotional and non-emotional contexts with simultaneous electroencephalography recordings. The behavioral findings showed that adults had faster response speed and better conflict control performance compared to children. Children's accuracy was affected by the emotional context, whereby children had a lower accuracy in the emotional contexts compared to the non-emotional contexts. Adults had similar performances in both contexts. During the neural processes of conflict detection and conflict resolution, children had longer N2 latencies for conflict detection, and devoted more neural efforts with larger P3 amplitudes to execute resolution control on the conflicts than adults. Moreover, both age groups' reaction times (RT) were shorter in the Simon task than in the Stroop task in the non-emotional context, while, RTs were longer in the Simon task than in the Stroop task in the emotional context. Children showed larger P3 responses in the Simon task than in the Stroop task in the emotional contexts, while adults showed no such differences. The current findings demonstrate that children have immature neurodevelopment of conflict control compared to adults, and their cognitive control processes on conflicts were distracted by the emotional contexts. Children's emotional conflict control processes were also affected by the characteristic of conflict types, and they need to devote more neural effort to process Simon-like conflicts than Stroop-like conflicts compared to adults.

Diminished cognitive control in alcohol use disorder (AUD) is thought to be mediated by prefrontal cortex circuitry dysregulation. Research testing the relationship between AUD and specific cognitive control psychophysiological correlates, such as medial frontal (MF) theta-band EEG power, is scarce, and the etiology of this relationship is largely unknown. The current report tested relationship between pathological alcohol use through young adulthood and reduced conflict-related theta at age 29 in a large prospective population-based twin sample. Greater lifetime AUD symptomatology was associated with reduced MF theta power during response conflict, but not alpha-band visual attention processing. Follow-up analyses using cotwin control analysis and biometric modeling suggested that genetic influences, and not the consequences of sustained AUD symptomatology, explained the theta-AUD association. Results provide strong evidence that AUD is genetically related to diminished conflict-related MF theta, and advance MF theta as a promising electrophysiological correlate of AUD-related dysfunctional frontal circuitry.

Group-focused moral foundations (GMFs) - moral values that help protect the group's welfare - sharply divide conservatives from liberals and religiously devout from non-believers. However, there is little evidence about what drives this divide. Moral foundations theory and the model of motivated social cognition both associate group-focused moral foundations with differences in conflict detection and resolution capacity, but in opposing directions. Individual differences in conflict detection and resolution implicate specific neuroanatomical differences. Examining neuroanatomy thus affords an objective and non-biased opportunity to contrast these influential theories. Here, we report that increased adherence to group-focused moral foundations was strongly associated (whole-brain corrected) with reduced gray matter volume in key regions of the conflict detection and resolution system (anterior cingulate cortex and lateral prefrontal cortex). Because reduced gray matter is reliably associated with reduced neural and cognitive capacity, these findings support the idea outlined in the model of motivated social cognition that belief in group-focused moral values is associated with reduced conflict detection and resolution capacity.

Successful motor control during behavioral conflicts relies on neural adjustments that can occur reactively (i.e., after conflict occurrence) and proactively (i.e., in preparation prior to conflicts). While midfrontal delta/theta oscillations are known to play a role for reactive control, their relevance for proactive control is unclear. Using EEG, we investigated the role of midfrontal oscillations during conflict preparation in a motor conflict task, where a predictive cue either indicated no or an increased likelihood for an action conflict. During conflict preparation, increased conflict likelihood led to a proactive modulation of neural oscillations related to both motor processing (central beta) and sensory processing (posterior alpha). While midfrontal control oscillations significantly increased during conflict occurrence, increased conflict likelihood did not change midfrontal oscillatory activity during conflict preparation. This dissociation suggests that, while midfrontal oscillations are related to reactive conflict adjustments, proactive neural adjustment can be implemented without midfrontal oscillatory control.

Recent findings showed that competition between object structural ("grasp-to-move") and functional ("grasp-to-use") gestures slows down the initiation of object-directed actions but also object visual processing. The present study investigates the neurophysiological correlates of the competition between gesture representations during object perception. 3D conflictual objects (distinct structural and functional gestures) and non-conflictual objects (similar structural and functional gestures) were presented in three spaces (peripersonal, boundary of peripersonal, and extrapersonal) in a virtual environment. Participants performed reach-to-grasp and semantic judgments on objects while EEG was recorded. Results revealed that the conflict between evoked gestures impacts 8-12 Hz desynchronization at both central (μ rhythm) and posterior (α rhythm) sites. Critically, μ rhythm desynchronization was suppressed when conflictual objects were presented in peripersonal space. Findings indicate that μ rhythm desynchronization is reduced by the competition between evoked gestures and suggest that neural motor resonance may also reflect action selection processes during object perception.

The present study investigated individual differences modulating P300 and MFN amplitudes in a concealed information test (CIT). Some participants were offered candy and either denied (n = 41) or ate it (n = 31), while others witnessed an examiner eating it (informed condition; n = 34). Afterwards it was suggested that the candy was not meant for them. During the CIT, participants saw the candy (probe) and similar unknown items (irrelevants) and indicated that they did not know them. P300 and MFN amplitudes differed for probe and irrelevant items, revealing that known items were more salient and deception was accompanied by response conflicts. Larger differences between P300s for probe versus irrelevant items occurred for women. Furthermore, especially for women, response conflicts diminished when being in the informed condition. Different patterns of MFN amplitudes appeared for informed women depending on the Machiavellianism score, suggesting that gender and Machiavellianism could be related to different cognitive processing during deception.

Evidence indicates that patterns of biological reactivity underlie different forms of aggression, but greater precision is needed in research targeting biopsychosocial processes that underlie such differences. This study investigated how sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system (SNS and PNS) responses to social stress were associated with multiple forms of aggression in an ethnically-diverse sample of young adult females; it further examined whether early life exposure to family conflict moderated these relationships. In the context of high levels of family conflict history, greater SNS activation during a social conflict task was associated with more direct proactive aggression and increasing RSA was associated with more direct reactive aggression. Greater SNS activation during the task was associated with more direct reactive aggression regardless of family conflict history. Our findings affirm the need to capture the contributions of multiple physiological systems simultaneously and the importance of considering family history in the study of aggression.

The present study investigated the locus of the effect of alerting on response conflict, and examined whether this effect may be interpreted as an alerting-triggered imbalance of speed-accuracy tradeoff (SAT). Participants performed the flanker task with an alerting tone in half of the trials and SAT manipulation. Behavioral results showed the usual increase of the conflict effect (incongruent-congruent flankers) in the alerting trials. This interaction was not affected by SAT manipulation in response times, although accuracy emphasis abolished alerting effects in error rates. Event-related potential (ERP) results showed that alerting increased the conflict by facilitating the selection and activation of stimulus-response links, reflected in modulations of the P3b component, and by enhancing the activation of incorrect response evoked by incongruent flankers, reflected in an increased initial incorrect activation in the lateralized readiness potential (LRP). Time-frequency analysis showed that the alerting-triggered increase of conflict entailed stronger response of executive mechanisms, reflected in a larger conflict-related midfrontal theta-band power. These EEG effects were not affected by SAT manipulation. In conclusion, alerting affects both the emergence of conflict and conflict control, and this alerting-conflict interaction could not be explained in terms of SAT.

This study investigates age differences in the flexible adaptation to changing demands on task switching and conflict processing. We applied a cued task-switching version of the Stroop task and manipulated the ratio of conflict trials. During task preparation, the P300 varied as a function of conflict ratio and a later positive component was larger for switch than non-switch trials. Stimulus-related conflict processing as indicated by a negativity for incompatible trials (Ni) was delayed for older adults. Moreover, the Ni varied as a function of conflict ratio and was larger for switch than for non-switch trials. Age differences were also obtained in the correct response negativity (CRN). CRN was larger on incompatible trials and this CRN-compatibility effect was enhanced when incompatible trials were infrequent in younger, but not in older adults. Our findings suggest impairments of older adults primarily in response-related conflict processing and in the flexible adaptation to changing task contexts.

The present study is the first to assess whether the neural correlates of cognitive control processes differ in adults with and without a behaviorally inhibited temperament during early childhood. Adults with and without childhood behavioral inhibition completed an emotional conflict task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning. While no group differences in behavior were observed, adults with childhood behavioral inhibition, relative to adults without childhood behavioral inhibition, exhibited greater dorsomedial prefrontal cortex activity during conflict detection and greater putamen activity during conflict adaptation. Lifetime psychopathology predicted behavioral, but not brain-related, differences in conflict adaptation. These data suggest that the brain regions underlying cognitive control processes are differentially influenced by childhood behavioral inhibition, and may be differently related to psychopathology.

Spoken word onset syllables (prime fragments) have been used to track neurophysiological processing of following written words (targets). Between 300 and 400 ms event-related potentials (ERPs) over the left hemisphere were more positive for targets that did not match their preceding prime fragments (e.g., hun-dragon) compared to matching targets (e.g., dra-dragon). This P350 effect has been related to the activation of modality independent neural word form representations. In the present experiment we set out to characterize neural word processing specific to the auditory domain. Spoken word onset syllables (prime fragments) were followed by spoken words (targets). Reduced amplitudes for matching targets were found for the N100 and the T-complex (100-300 ms), for the P350 (300-400 ms) and for a central negativity starting at 300 ms. The early potentials possibly index the priming of speech sound processing. The P350 replicates previous work with written words. This constitutes further evidence for shared neural word form representations in auditory and visual word recognition. The central negativity might be related to the rapid phonological matching of prime and target; or to the immediate testing of phonological expectations in speech recognition.

Research indicates that psychopathy may be characterized by early attentional abnormalities that undermine the processing of peripheral information during goal-directed activity (Baskin-Sommers & Newman, 2012). Past work has found that psychopathic individuals show reduced interference on the Box Stroop task, in which color names are spatially separated from (i.e., peripheral to) colored stimuli (Hiatt, Schmitt, & Newman, 2004). The present study sought to replicate and extend these findings. A priori predictions were that psychopathy scores would be inversely related to interference and that psychopathy-related differences in Box Stroop conflict processing would emerge at an early stage as measured by event-related potentials (ERP). Results supported both hypotheses. Moreover, the association between the early attention-related component (N100) and interference was moderated by level of psychopathy. These findings suggest that psychopathic individuals have less coordinated responses to conflict than healthy individuals, a conjecture that has implications for information integration and self-regulation.

Functional hemispheric asymmetry can be lost with aging. In this electroencephalographic study, we assessed hemispheric asymmetries in regulating motor responses by analyzing oscillatory brain activity during a go/nogo task in younger and older right-handed participants. Three conditions were embedded in the task: go, high-conflict and low-conflict nogo. The hand used to respond to go stimuli was varied block-wise. Independently of the go/nogo conditions and responding hand, young participants showed asymmetric desynchronizations in the mu (10 Hz) and beta (18-22 Hz) frequency bands that was stronger in the scalp sensorimotor region contralateral to the hand used for the go responses, while older adults showed a more symmetric pattern of desynchronization. These findings indicate that a loss of hemispheric asymmetry is a hallmark of the aging motor system, consistent with a decline of inter-hemispheric motor inhibition in normal aging.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate the brain activity associated with response change in a belief bias paradigm before and after logic training. Participants completed two sets of belief biased reasoning tasks. In the first set they were instructed to respond based on their empirical beliefs, and in the second - following logic training - they were instructed to respond logically. The comparison between conflict problems in the second scan versus in the first scan revealed differing activation for the left inferior frontal gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, cerebellum, and precuneus. The scan was time locked to the presentation of the minor premise, and thus demonstrated effects of belief-logic conflict on neural activation earlier in the time course than has previously been shown in fMRI. These data, moreover, indicated that logical training results in changes in brain activity associated with cognitive control processing.

The Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect was examined in highly (HMA) and low math-anxious (LMA) individuals performing a number comparison in an ERP study. The SNARC effect consists of faster latencies when the response side is congruent with number location in the mental number line (MNL). Despite the stronger SNARC effect in the HMA group, their responses in incongruent trials were slower than in congruent trials only for the largest numerical magnitudes. Moreover, HMAs showed a less positive centroparietal P3b component in incongruent trials than in congruent ones, but only for the largest magnitudes. Since the SNARC effect arises during response selection and P3b positivity decreases with the difficulty of decision, this result suggests that HMA individuals might find it more difficult than LMAs to control the conflict between the automatically activated location of numbers in the MNL and the response side, especially in more cognitively demanding trials.

Although the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) is associated with threat-sensitivity, little is known about its neurofunctional correlates during cognitive control over task-irrelevant threat distractors. Thirty non-clinical participants, who ranged in BIS sensitivity, completed an attentional control paradigm during fMRI. The paradigm varied in cognitive demand with low perceptual load comprising identical target letters and high perceptual load comprising a target letter in a mixed letter string; each superimposed on threatening and neutral face distractors. Whole-brain results indicated that individuals with higher, relative to lower BIS sensitivity, exhibited enhanced dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation to angry (vs. neutral) and enhanced dorsal anterior cingulate cortex activation to fearful (vs. neutral) face distractors under low load whereas no differences in activation were observed under high load. These findings are consistent with literature indicating that the BIS is involved in conflict processing, including between cognitive and emotional or motivational goals.

Prolonged stress affects the central nervous system, rendering individuals vulnerable to a wide range of mental health disorders. 76 healthy postpartum mothers were studied by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging within 6 days of childbirth. The subjects were required to perform the emotional Stroop task involving happy and anxious word-face combinations. Hair samples were collected to determine cumulative hair cortisol concentration (HCC) in the third trimester. HCC was found to be negatively correlated with the recruitment of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the midcingulate cortex (MCC). In response to the emotional interference of only anxious target faces, a negative correlation was seen between HCC and the bilateral orbitofrontal cortex, extending to the rostral ACC and the MCC. Women with lower HCC recruited brain areas relevant to emotional cognitive control, indicating that lower HCC helps preserve conflict monitoring and resolution capacities and thus benefits mental health in pregnancy.