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Causal Interactions between Frontal(?) - Parieto-Occipital(?2) Predict Performance on a Mental Arithmetic Task.

ABSTRACT: Many neuroimaging studies have demonstrated the different functional contributions of spatially distinct brain areas to working memory (WM) subsystems in cognitive tasks that demand both local information processing and interregional coordination. In WM cognitive task paradigms employing electroencephalography (EEG), brain rhythms such as ? and ? have been linked to specific functional roles over given brain areas, but their functional coupling has not been extensively studied. Here we analyzed an arithmetic task with five cognitive workload levels (CWLs) and demonstrated functional/effective coupling between the two WM subsystems: the central executive located over frontal (F) brain areas that oscillates on the dominant ? rhythm (Frontal(?)/F(?)) and the storage buffer located over parieto-occipital (PO) brain areas that operates on the ?2 dominant brain rhythm (Parieto-Occipital(?2)/PO(?2)). We focused on important differences between and within WM subsystems in relation to behavioral performance. A repertoire of brain connectivity estimators was employed to elucidate the distinct roles of amplitude, phase within and between frequencies, and the hierarchical role of functionally specialized brain areas related to the task. Specifically, for each CWL, we conducted a) a conventional signal power analysis within both frequency bands at F(?) and PO(?2), b) the intra- and inter-frequency phase interactions between F(?) and PO(?2), and c) their causal phase and amplitude relationship. We found no significant statistical difference of signal power or phase interactions between correct and wrong answers. Interestingly, the study of causal interactions between F(?) and PO(?2) revealed frontal brain region(s) as the leader, while the strength differentiated between correct and wrong responses in every CWL with absolute accuracy. Additionally, zero time-lag between bilateral F(?) and right PO(a2) could serve as an indicator of mental calculation failure. Overall, our study highlights the significant role of coordinated activity between F(?) and PO(?2) via their causal interactions and the timing for arithmetic performance.

SUBMITTER: Dimitriadis SI

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5022172 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Causal Interactions between Frontal(θ) - Parieto-Occipital(α2) Predict Performance on a Mental Arithmetic Task.

Dimitriadis Stavros I SI Sun Yu Y Thakor Nitish V NV Bezerianos Anastasios A

Frontiers in human neuroscience 20160914

Many neuroimaging studies have demonstrated the different functional contributions of spatially distinct brain areas to working memory (WM) subsystems in cognitive tasks that demand both local information processing and interregional coordination. In WM cognitive task paradigms employing electroencephalography (EEG), brain rhythms such as θ and α have been linked to specific functional roles over given brain areas, but their functional coupling has not been extensively studied. Here we analyzed ...[more]

PMID: 27683547

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Project description:Frontal-midline theta (FMT) oscillations are increased in amplitude during cognitive control tasks. Since these tasks often conflate cognitive control and cognitive effort, it remains unknown if FMT amplitude maps onto cognitive control or effort. To address this gap, we utilized the glucose facilitation effect to manipulate cognitive effort without changing cognitive control demands. We performed a single-blind, crossover human study in which we provided participants with a glucose drink (control session: volume-matched water) to reduce cognitive effort and improve performance on a visuospatial working memory task. Following glucose consumption, participants performed the working memory task at multiple time points of a 3-h window to sample across the rise and fall of blood glucose. Using high-density electroencephalography (EEG), we calculated FMT amplitude during the delay period of the working memory task. Source localization analysis revealed that FMT oscillations originated from bilateral prefrontal cortex. We found that glucose increased working memory accuracy during the high working memory load condition but decreased FMT amplitude. The decrease in FMT amplitude coincided with both peak blood glucose elevation and peak performance enhancement for glucose relative to water. Therefore, the positive association between glucose consumption and task performance provided causal evidence that the amplitude of FMT oscillations may correspond to cognitive effort, rather than cognitive control. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, data collection was terminated prematurely; the preliminary nature of these findings due to small sample size should be contextualized by rigorous experimental design and use of a novel causal perturbation to dissociate cognitive effort and cognitive control.NEW & NOTEWORTHY We investigated whether frontal-midline theta (FMT) oscillations tracked with cognitive control or cognitive effort by simultaneous manipulation of cognitive control demands in a working memory task and causal perturbation of cognitive effort using glucose consumption. Facilitation of performance from glucose consumption corresponded with decreased FMT amplitude, which provided preliminary causal evidence for a relationship between FMT amplitude with cognitive effort.

Dataset Information

Causal Interactions between Frontal(?) - Parieto-Occipital(?2) Predict Performance on a Mental Arithmetic Task.

Publications

Causal Interactions between Frontal(θ) - Parieto-Occipital(α2) Predict Performance on a Mental Arithmetic Task.

Similar Datasets

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