title: Alertness function of thalamus in conflict adaptation.
abstract: Conflict adaptation reflects the ability to improve current conflict resolution based on previously experienced conflict, which is crucial for our goal-directed behaviors. In recent years, the roles of alertness are attracting increasing attention when discussing the generation of conflict adaptation. However, due to the difficulty of manipulating alertness, very limited progress has been made in this line. Inspired by that color may affect alertness, we manipulated background color of experimental task and found that conflict adaptation significantly presented in gray and red backgrounds but did not in blue background. Furthermore, behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging results revealed that the modulation of color on conflict adaptation was implemented through changing alertness level. In particular, blue background eliminated conflict adaptation by damping the alertness regulating function of thalamus and the functional connectivity between thalamus and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). In contrast, in gray and red backgrounds where alertness levels are typically high, the thalamus and the right IFG functioned normally and conflict adaptations were significant. Therefore, the alertness function of thalamus is determinant to conflict adaptation, and thalamus and right IFG are crucial nodes of the neural circuit subserving this ability. Present findings provide new insights into the neural mechanisms of conflict adaptation.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China.
authors.forename: Xiangpeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoyue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, 100875, China.
authors.forename: Gui
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China. Electronic address: xscat@swu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Antao
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal; D001288:Attention; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003118:Color Perception; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time; D013788:Thalamus / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Alertness; Color modulation; Conflict adaptation; Hebbian learning model; Thalamus