K' RICHARD RIDDERINKHOF

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K. RICHARD RIDDERINKHOF
E P O S
The Control of Cognitive Processes Evaluative
and Executive Control inthe Activation,
Suppression, and Monitoring of Actions
Amsterdam, february 2002 EPOS / ONWA cursus
Cognitive Neuroscience
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INTRODUCTIONCOGNITIVE CONTROL
E P O S

• Cognitive control refers to a set of evaluative
  and executive cognitive processes that regulate
  the operation of more specialized cognitive
  processes
• Executive control
• refers to the adaptive ability to configure the
  cognitive system in accordance with complex,
  confusing, or novel demands
• comes into play when routine functioning of basal
  cognitive processes leads to inadequate or
  inappropriate performance
• Evaluative control
• refers to the ability to monitor the internal and
  external environment for signals that indicate
  the demand for (increased) executive control

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INTRODUCTIONTHE CONFLICT PARADIGM
E P O S

• The conflict paradigm is a well-known paradigm
  from experimental psychology that is well-suited
  to study evaluative and executive control
  processes
• Examples, used frequently in cognitive
  neuroscience
• Stroop / Eriksen / Simon / Priming /
  Antisaccade
• Conflict tasks involve
• basal cognitive functions (e.g., perceptual
  identification, stimulus-response
  translation, response activation)
• executive functions (goal maintainance context
  updating, attentional selection, response
  inhibition)
• evaluative functions (monitoring for conflicts
  and errors, monitoring for feedback, monitoring
  for change of goals/context)

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INTRODUCTIONCOGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE
E P O S

• Monitoring functions do not imply a homunculus
• Simple set of ifthen rules
• Can readily be simulated using both
  production-rule systems and connectionist
  networks
• Conflict tasks are really popular in
  neuro-imaging studies as well as behavioral
  studies
• What can we learn about the activation,
  monitoring, and suppression of actions in
  conflict tasks by combining and integrating
  techniques and insights from the cognitive
  neurosciences

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RESPONSE ACTIVATION CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
E P O S

• Dual process model of response activation
  in conflict tasks

• general architecture
• e.g., Kornblum et al. ( JEPHPP, 1990)
• present version Ridderinkhof et al.
  (ActaPsychol, 1995)

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RESPONSE ACTIVATION DISTRIBUTIONAL ANALYSIS
E P O S

• CONDITIONAL ACCURACY FUNCTIONS (CAFs)

• plot response accuracy as a function of response
  speed (bins or quantiles)
• micro - tradeoff between speed and accuracy

• How is the direct activation of responses
  expressed in CAFs ?

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RESPONSE ACTIVATION SIMON TASK RIDDERINKHOF
(A P XIX, 2002)
E P O S

• Trials preceded by CR trials versus trials
  preceded by NCR trials

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RESPONSE ACTIVATION SIMON TASK RIDDERINKHOF
(PSYCH RES, IN PRESS)
E P O S

• Sometimes accuracy dips below chance level
• CR/NCR probability

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SELECTIVE SUPPRESSION CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
E P O S

• The Activation-Suppression model

• Direct activation is subsequently suppressed
• Selective Suppression takes some time to build up
  
• Ridderinkhof (A P XIX, 2002)
• Burle et al. (PsychRes, in press)
• Eimer (JMB, 2001)

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DISTRIBUTIONAL ANALYSES
E P O S
CUMULATIVE DENSITY

• CUMULATIVE DENSITY FUNCTIONS (CDFs)

• Plot the probability of responding as a function
  of response speed
• Webers law Effect size
  increases as responses get
  slower

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ACTIVATION - SUPPRESSION DELTA PLOTS
E P O S

• DELTA PLOTS

• plot effect size as a function of response speed
  quantiles

CUMULATIVE DENSITY

• provide a convenient reduction of data, allowing
  easy inspection of dynamics of suppression
  effects

DELTA PLOT
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ACTIVATION - SUPPRESSION DELTA PLOTS
E P O S

• If suppression is weak (or slow), then it will
  operate mostly on slow responses

CUMULATIVE DENSITY
DELTA PLOT
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ACTIVATION - SUPPRESSION DELTA PLOTS
E P O S
CUMULATIVE DENSITY

• If suppression is stronger (or faster), then it
  will operate also on less slow responses

DELTA PLOT
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ACTIVATION - SUPPRESSION DELTA PLOTS
E P O S
CUMULATIVE DENSITY
DELTA PLOT

• If suppression is still stronger (or faster),
  then it will operate also even on relatively fast
  responses

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ACTIVATION - SUPPRESSION SIMON TASK
RIDDERINKHOF (A P XIX, 2002)
E P O S

• Same trials, but embedded in contexts that differ
  in inhibitory demands

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ACTIVATION - SUPPRESSION SIMON TASK
RIDDERINKHOF (A P XIX, 2002)
E P O S

• Median-split of sample, based on magnitude of
  Simon effect

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ACTIVATION - SUPPRESSION ERIKSEN TASK
RIDDERINKHOF ET AL. (IN PREP)
E P O S

• AD/HD children versus age/IQ-matched controls

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ACTIVATION - SUPPRESSION ERIKSEN TASK
RIDDERINKHOF ET AL. (IN PREP)
E P O S

• Effects of medicinal methylphenidate treatment in
  AD/HD children

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ACTIVATION - SUPPRESSION PRIMING TASK BAND
ET AL. (PSYCH RES, IN PRESS)
E P O S

• Effects not always present
• instructed SAT

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ACTIVATION - SUPPRESSION ERIKSEN TASK
RIDDERINKHOF ET AL. (IN PREP)
E P O S

• Effects not always present
• effects of alcohol (double blind study)
• in the face of other interesting effects (to be
  discussed later)

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ACTIVATION - SUPPRESSION SIMON TASK
RIDDERINKHOF (PSYCH RES, IN PRESS)
E P O S

• Adaptive behavior following error commission

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ACTIVATION - SUPPRESSION SIMON TASK BURLE
ET AL. (PSYCH RES, IN PRESS)
E P O S

• Adaptive behavior following partial error
  commission (as determined with electromyographic
  recordings)

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ACTIVATION - SUPPRESSION N2 INDEX FOR RESPONSE
SUPPRESSION ?
E P O S

• N2 component of ERP is enhanced in conflict
  trials (e.g., Kopp et al., yf, 1996)

• So, does N2 reflect response suppression?

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ACTIVATION - SUPPRESSION N2 INDEX FOR RESPONSE
SUPPRESSION ?
E P O S

• fMRI studies
• Botvinick et al. (Nature 1998)
• v.Veen et al. (Neuro-Image 2001)
• caudal ACC
• active during conflict trials (in
  correct responses)

• source of N2 ?
• v.Veen et al. J.Cogn.Neuroscience, in press
• N2 during conflict trials can be localized to
  caudal ACC
• ACC seat of response inhibition ?

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ACTIVATION - SUPPRESSION N2 INDEX FOR RESPONSE
SUPPRESSION ?
E P O S

• Parallel NoGo-N2
• Nieuwenhuis et al. (in prep)
• typical interpretation NoGo-N2 reflects response
  inhibition
• source ACC

Stimulus-locked ERPs
CSD Difference Maps

• Conclusion response
  suppression
• relies on caudal ACC
• is expressed in N2

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EVALUATIVE CONTROL ERN INDEX FOR
ERROR/CONFLICT MONITORING
E P O S

• Brain activity related to the detection /
  monitoring / appraisal of
• erroneous responses
• (partially) erroneous activation
• conflicting activation
• suspicious activation
• Error ( - Related) Negativity

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EVALUATIVE CONTROL ERN INDEX FOR
ERROR/CONFLICT MONITORING
E P O S

• ERN is robust, observed many times
• Mainstream interpretation error/conflict
  monitoring
• on error trials, the activated response conflicts
  with the response that should have been given
• the ERN source, according to both fMRI and ERP
  source-localization studies, is caudal ACC
• caudal ACC the seat of both conflict monitoring
  and response suppression ?
• both evaluative and executive control ?

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THE ROLE OF CAUDAL ACC EVALUATIVE AND / OR
EXECUTIVE CONTROL
E P O S

• Nieuwenhuis et al. (in prep) -- Go/NoGo task

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THE ROLE OF CAUDAL ACC EVALUATIVE AND / OR
EXECUTIVE CONTROL
E P O S

• Nieuwenhuis et al. (in prep) -- Go/NoGo task

Stimulus-locked ERPs
CSD Difference Maps
20 NoGo
µV
µV
20
0
200
400
600
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THE ROLE OF CAUDAL ACC EVALUATIVE AND / OR
EXECUTIVE CONTROL
E P O S

• Results of Nieuwenhuis et al. (in prep) were
  confirmed
• fMRI study by Braver et al. (Cerebral Cortex,
  2001)
• caudal ACC is active in conditions in which the
  anticipated response conflicts with the actually
  required response
• caudal ACC activity does not depend on inhibitory
  demands
• ERP study by van Veen et al. ( J.Cogn.Neuroscience
  , in press)
• caudal ACC is active during error trials
• caudal ACC is active during correct conflict
  trials
• So, N2 probably does not reflect response
  suppression, but conflict monitoring
• Response suppression more likely involves DL-PFC
• (for review refer to Band vBoxtel, Acta
  Psychol, 1999)

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ERROR MONITORING / AWARENESS ERN VERSUS PE
E P O S

• Brain activity related to the awareness of
• erroneous responses
• (partially) erroneous activation
• conflicting activation
• suspicious activation
• Error ( - Related) Positivity, located in
  rostral ACC

R
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ERROR MONITORING / AWARENESS ERN VERSUS PE
E P O S

• Antisaccade task (Nieuwenhuis et al.,
  Psychohysiology, 2001)

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ERROR MONITORING / AWARENESS ERN VERSUS PE
E P O S

• Antisaccade task (Nieuwenhuis et al.
  (Psychohysiology, 2001)

• Elicits many (reflexive saccade) errors
• Subjects indicated whether they thought they had
  made an erroneous eye movement (i.e., a
  reflexive saccade towards the cue)
• Trials in which subjects were aware of their
  error showed a representative ERN as well as a PE
• Trials in which subjects were not aware of their
  error showed a full - size ERN but hardly any
  PE
• So, ERN and PE can be dissociated
• PE is somehow related to the recognition of the
  fact that an error was made ( . . . awareness ? )

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ERROR MONITORING / AWARENESS ERN VERSUS PE
E P O S

• Effects of alcohol (Ridderinkhof et al., in prep)
• Effects of alcohol on performance EEG measures
  in an Eriksen flanker task

• Results
• at placebo, subjects showed representative ERN as
  well as PE
• in the alcohol conditions, subjects showed a full
  - sized ERN , and a clearly attenuated PE
• Conclusion
• Alcohol does not affect error / conflict
  monitoring
• Alcohol does affect error awareness

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CONCLUSIONS
E P O S

• Combining and integrating distributional, ERP,
  and fMRI techniques can inform us about
  evaluative and executive control processes
• activation, monitoring, and suppression of
  actions in conflict tasks
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