title: Linking inter-individual differences in the conflict adaptation effect to spontaneous brain activity.
abstract: Conflict adaptation has been widely researched in normal and clinical populations. There are large individual differences in conflict adaptation, and it has been linked to the schizotypal trait. However, no study to date has examined how individual differences in spontaneous brain activity are related to behavioral conflict adaptation (performance). Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI) is a promising tool to investigate this issue. The present study evaluated the regional homogeneity (ReHo) of RS-fMRI signals in order to explore the neural basis of individual differences in conflict adaptation across two independent samples comprising a total of 67 normal subjects. A partial correlation analysis was carried out to examine the relationship between ReHo and behavioral conflict adaptation, while controlling for reaction time, standard deviation and flanker interference effects. This analysis was conducted on 39 subjects' data (sample 1); the results showed significant positive correlations in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. We then conducted a test-validation procedure on the remaining 28 subjects' data (sample 2) to examine the reliability of the results. Regions of interest were defined based on the correlation results. Regression analysis showed that variability in ReHo values in the DLPFC accounted for 48% of the individual differences in the conflict adaptation effect in sample 2. The present findings provide further support for the importance of the DLPFC in the conflict adaptation process. More importantly, we demonstrated that ReHo of RS-fMRI signals in the DLPFC can predict behavioral performance in conflict adaptation, which provides potential biomarkers for the early detection of cognitive control deterioration.
authors.affiliation: Key laboratory of Cognition and Personality of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China; Laboratory of Cognition and Mental Health, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key laboratory of Cognition and Personality of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Zhencai
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Key laboratory of Cognition and Personality of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Guang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Key laboratory of Cognition and Personality of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Glenn
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hitchman
authors.affiliation: Key laboratory of Cognition and Personality of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Congcong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key laboratory of Cognition and Personality of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoyue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Key laboratory of Cognition and Personality of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Yijun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key laboratory of Cognition and Personality of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China. Electronic address: xscat@swu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Antao
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007206:Individuality; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Conflict adaptation; Dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC); Regional homogeneity (ReHo); Resting-state fMRI