title: Comparing the Neural Correlates of Conscious and Unconscious Conflict Control in a Masked Stroop Priming Task.
abstract: Although previous studies have suggested that conflict control can occur in the absence of consciousness, the brain mechanisms underlying unconscious and conscious conflict control remain unclear. The current study used a rapid event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging design to collect data from 24 participants while they performed a masked Stroop priming task under both conscious and unconscious conditions. The results revealed that the fronto-parietal conflict network, including medial frontal cortex (MFC), left and right dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and posterior parietal cortex (PPC), was activated by both conscious and unconscious Stroop priming, even though in MFC and left DLPFC the activations elicited by unconscious Stroop priming were smaller than conscious Stroop priming. The findings provide evidence for the existence of quantitative differences between the neural substrates of conscious and unconscious conflict control.
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Psychology, School of Psychology, Third Military Medical University Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Ohio Wesleyan University Delaware, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Kira
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bailey
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Jiangxi Province for Psychology and Cognition Science, School of Psychology, Jiangxi Normal University Nanchang, China.
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Psychology, School of Psychology, Third Military Medical University Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Qinglin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
keywords: Stroop priming; conflict control; conscious; fMRI; unconscious