Mid-Frontal Theta Modulates Response Inhibition and Decision Making Processes in Emotional Contexts.

Siddharth Nayak,Chiishyang Kuo,Arthur Chih-Hsin Tsai

doi:10.3390/brainsci9100271

Abstract

Inhibitory control is an integral part of executive functions. In this study, we report event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) results from 15 healthy adults performing an emotional stop-signal task with the use of happy, disgusted, and neutral emotional faces. Our ERSP results at the group level suggest that changes in low frequency oscillatory power for emotional and neutral conditions start at as early as 200 ms after stimulus onset and 300 ms before button press for successful go trials. To quantify the dynamics of trial-by-trial theta power, we applied the hierarchical drift diffusion model to single-trial ERSP at the mid-frontal electrode site for the go condition. Hierarchical drift diffusion modeling (HDDM) assigned higher frontal low-frequency oscillatory power for evidence accumulation in emotional contexts as compared to a neutral setting. Our results provide new evidence for dynamic modulation of sensory processing of go stimuli in inhibition and extend our knowledge for processing of response inhibition in emotional contexts.

Highlights

Inhibitory control is a critical component of executive function measured in tasks where participants typically have to inhibit a prepotent response [1]
To test our specific hypotheses, we modeled emotional stop-signal data as an evidence accumulation process to pick apart the perceptual decision making dimensions that are relevant for differentiating between the ES and NS conditions
During the successful go condition, reaction times were increased for neutral trials relative to happy (F(1, 14) = 20.022, p = 0.001, partial η2 = 0.589) but not disgust trials (p > 0.05) which is partially in line with dual competition framework [25]; happy stimuli captured more attentional resources relative to neutral stimuli

Summary

Introduction

Inhibitory control is a critical component of executive function measured in tasks where participants typically have to inhibit a prepotent response [1] It is best measured in the laboratory in the form of a go/no-go task or stop-signal paradigm. A network of brain regions for this reactive inhibition ( commonly referred to as motor inhibition) process recruits the right inferior frontal cortex (rIFC), the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA), and the subthalamic nucleus (STN) [3,4,5]. These brain regions are deemed to be activated by the stop stimulus. A slow reaction time for the go stimulus enhances the likelihood of successful inhibition for a particular trial, and sensory processes involved with the stop stimulus are mostly assumed to influence reactive inhibition [6,7]

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