title: Hemodynamic and electrophysiological signals of conflict processing in the Chinese-character Stroop task: a simultaneous near-infrared spectroscopy and event-related potential study.
abstract: A dual-modality method combining continuous-wave near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and event-related potentials (ERPs) was developed for the Chinese-character color-word Stroop task, which included congruent, incongruent, and neutral stimuli. Sixteen native Chinese speakers participated in this study. Hemodynamic and electrophysiological signals in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) were monitored simultaneously by NIRS and ERP. The hemodynamic signals were represented by relative changes in oxy-, deoxy-, and total hemoglobin concentration, whereas the electrophysiological signals were characterized by the parameters P450, N500, and P600. Both types of signals measured at four regions of the PFC were analyzed and compared spatially and temporally among the three different stimuli. We found that P600 signals correlated significantly with the hemodynamic parameters, suggesting that the PFC executes conflict-solving function. Additionally, we observed that the change in deoxy-Hb concentration showed higher sensitivity in response to the Stroop task than other hemodynamic signals. Correlation between NIRS and ERP signals revealed that the vascular response reflects the cumulative effect of neural activities. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that this new dual-modality method is a useful approach to obtaining more information during cognitive and physiological studies.
authors.affiliation: Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, 1037 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430074, China.
authors.forename: Jiahuan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhai
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Zhongxing
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gong
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology*; D002681:China; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared / Q000379:methods*; D057190:Stroop Test; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D006454:Hemoglobins