title: Contextually sensitive power changes across multiple frequency bands underpin cognitive control.
abstract: Flexible control of cognition bestows a remarkable adaptability to a broad range of contexts. While cognitive control is known to rely on frontoparietal neural architecture to achieve this flexibility, the neural mechanisms that allow such adaptability to context are poorly understood. In the current study, we quantified contextual demands on the cognitive control system via a priori estimation of information across three tasks varying in difficulty (oddball, go/nogo, and switch tasks) and compared neural responses across these different contexts. We report evidence of the involvement of multiple frequency bands during preparation and implementation of cognitive control. Specifically, a common frontoparietal delta and a central alpha process corresponded to rule implementation and motor response respectively. Interestingly, we found evidence of a frontal theta signature that was sensitive to increasing amounts of information and a posterior parietal alpha process only seen during anticipatory rule updating. Importantly, these neural signatures of context processing match proposed frontal hierarchies of control and together provide novel evidence of a complex interplay of multiple frequency bands underpinning flexible, contextually sensitive cognition.
authors.affiliation: Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory, School of Psychology, University of Newcastle, Australia; Priority Research Centre for Translational Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Newcastle, Australia.
authors.forename: Patrick S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neuropsychology, University of the Balearic Islands, Mallorca, Spain.
authors.forename: Álvaro
authors.initials: Á
authors.lastname: Darriba
authors.affiliation: Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory, School of Psychology, University of Newcastle, Australia; Priority Research Centre for Translational Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Newcastle, Australia.
authors.forename: Frini
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Karayanidis
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neuropsychology, University of the Balearic Islands, Mallorca, Spain; Asociación de Neuropsicología Balear (ANEBA), Mallorca, Spain. Electronic address: f.barcelo@uib.es.
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Barceló
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000513:Alpha Rhythm; D058256:Brain Waves; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003700:Delta Rhythm; D004569:Electroencephalography; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007257:Information Theory; D008297:Male; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: EEG; Executive function; Go/nogo; Information theory; Oddball; Prefrontal cortex; Task switching; Time frequency