Abstract
Cognitive control is needed when mistakes have consequences, especially when such consequences are potentially harmful. However, little is known about how the aversive consequences of deficient control affect behavior. To address this issue, participants performed a two-choice response time task where error commissions were expected to be punished by electric shocks during certain blocks. By manipulating (1) the perceived punishment risk (no, low, high) associated with error commissions, and (2) response conflict (low, high), we showed that motivation to avoid punishment enhanced performance during high response conflict. As a novel index of the processes enabling successful cognitive control under threat, we explored electromyographic activity in the corrugator supercilii (cEMG) muscle of the upper face. The corrugator supercilii is partially controlled by the anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC) which is sensitive to negative affect, pain and cognitive control. As hypothesized, the cEMG exhibited several key similarities with the core temporal and functional characteristics of the Error-Related Negativity (ERN) ERP component, the hallmark index of cognitive control elicited by performance errors, and which has been linked to the aMCC. The cEMG was amplified within 100 ms of error commissions (the same time-window as the ERN), particularly during the high punishment risk condition where errors would be most aversive. Furthermore, similar to the ERN, the magnitude of error cEMG predicted post-error response time slowing. Our results suggest that cEMG activity can serve as an index of avoidance motivated control, which is instrumental to adaptive cognitive control when consequences are potentially harmful.
Highlights
Cognitive control is engaged to match behavior to goals when well-established responses are contextually inappropriate, or when several possible responses conflict [1,2]
Manipulation check: Skin Conductance Level To asses if the punishment risk manipulation had an effect on overall arousal, skin conductance level (SCL) was analyzed with Punishment Risk (No/ Low/High) as single predictor, which showed a strong main effect, x2(2) = 61.16, p
As predicted, we showed that the perceived risk of punishment for error commissions attenuated the detrimental effect of high response conflict on performance
Summary
Cognitive control is engaged to match behavior to goals when well-established responses are contextually inappropriate, or when several possible responses conflict [1,2]. Research on cognitive control has commonly emphasized the role of task goals in guiding adaptive behavior, and less is known about how the consequences of flawed control affect behavior. This is surprising, because considering the consequences of one’s behavior can be crucial to survival in many situations [3]. The consequences of control-demanding real-world behaviors are seldom neutral (e.g., looking in the wrong direction while crossing the street in England or acting inappropriately in a social situation), and the need for controlled behavior is likely to increase as a function of the risk of aversive consequences following control failure. A better description of the relationship between cognitive control and the risk of aversive consequences of control failure is of importance for our understanding of both normal social and emotional functioning, and of stress- and anxiety-related psychiatric disorders [4] , as well as disorders characterized by control failure (e.g., relapse in addiction) [5]
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