Global Neural Activities Changes under Human Inhibitory Control Using Translational Scenario.

Rupesh Kumar Chikara,Li-Wei Ko

doi:10.3390/brainsci10090640

Abstract

This study presents a new approach to exploring human inhibition in a realistic scenario. In previous inhibition studies, the stimulus design of go/no-go task generally used a simple symbol for the go and stop signals. We can understand the neural activity of inhibition through simple symbol scenario. In the real world, situations of human inhibition are more complex than performing an experiment in the laboratory scale. How to explore the neural activities of inhibition in a realistic environment is more complex. Consequently, we designed a battlefield scenario to investigate the neural activities of inhibition in a more realistic environmental setting. The battlefield scenario provides stronger emotion, motivation and real-world experiences for participants during inhibition. In the battlefield scenario, the signs of fixation, go and stop were replaced by images of a sniper scope, a target and a non-target. The battlefield scenario is a shooting game between the enemy and the soldiers. In battlefield scenario participants played the role of the soldiers for shooting target and to stop shooting when a non-target appeared. Electroencephalography (EEG) signals from twenty participants were acquired and analyzed using independent component analysis (ICA) and dipole source localization method. The results of event-related potential (ERP) showed a significant modulation of the peaks N1, N2 and P3 in the frontal and cingulate cortices under inhibitory control. The partially overlapping ERP N2 and P3 waves were associated with inhibition in the frontal cortex. The ERP N2, N1 and P3 waves in the cingulate cortex are related to sustained attention, motivation, emotion and inhibitory control. In addition, the event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) results shows that the powers of the delta and theta bands increased significantly in the frontal and cingulate cortices under human inhibitory control. The EEG-ERP waves and power spectra in the frontal and cingulate cortices were found more increased than in the parietal, occipital, left and right motor cortices after successful stop. These findings provide new insights to understand the global neural activities changes during human inhibitory control with realistic environmental scenario.

Highlights

In recent years, there has been a dramatic proliferation of research related to human response inhibition
We observed a significant P3 positive wave around 500 ms after non-targets 50 ms earlier in the frontal and cingulate cortices of the brain under successful stop than in unsuccessful stop and go trials. These findings show that N2 and P3 waves partially overlap in the frontal cingulate cortices are the neural markers of human inhibition
We found similar inhibition-related EEG-event-related potential (ERP) markers of N2 and P3 waves, and the event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) of delta–theta band powers increased in frontal cortex of the brain

Summary

Introduction

There has been a dramatic proliferation of research related to human response inhibition. Brain Sci. 2020, 10, 640; doi:10.3390/brainsci10090640 www.mdpi.com/journal/brainsci. Brain Sci. 2020, 10, 640 that is necessary for the control of executive function. Neural activities of human response inhibition are investigated using a stop-signal task or go/no-go task. Past response inhibition studies used the simple symbol as go and stop signals [7,8]. These studies did not show a realistic environment for the subject when performing the stop-signal task. We can understand the neural activities of human inhibition. In the real world, investigating the neural activities of inhibition is more complex than on a laboratory scale

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