Abstract
Cognitive flexibility is a major requirement for successful behavior. nNeural oscillations in the alpha frequency band were repeatedly associated with cognitive flexibility in task-switching paradigms. Alpha frequencies are modulated by working memory load and are used to process information during task switching, however we do not know how this oscillatory network communication is modulated. In order to understand the mechanisms that drive cognitive flexibility, ERPs, oscillatory power and how the communication within these networks is organized are of importance. The EEG data show that during phases reflecting preparatory processes to pre-activate task sets, alpha oscillatory power but not the small world properties of the alpha network architecture was modulated. During the switching only the N2 ERP component showed clear modulations. After the response, alpha oscillatory power reinstates and therefore seems to be important to deactivate or maintain the previous task set. For these reactive control processes the network architecture in terms of small-world properties is modulated. Effects of memory load on small-world aspects were seen in repetition trials, where small-world properties were higher when memory processes were relevant. These results suggest that the alpha oscillatory network becomes more small-world-like when reactive control processes during task switching are less complex.
Highlights
Cognitive flexibility is a major requirement for successful goal-directed behavior in real life situations and has been subject to intensive research in the past decades1–3
Since it has been shown that the P3 and N2 event-related potentials (ERPs)-components reflect mechanisms of task set activation and or in processes reflecting the resolution of conflict, respectively48–51, we focus on the analysis of these two ERP-components
In the current study we focused on how alpha oscillations are modulated by working memory load during task switching and how oscillatory network communication within frequency range is modulated in order to process information
Summary
Cognitive flexibility is a major requirement for successful goal-directed behavior in real life situations and has been subject to intensive research in the past decades. Networks showing small-world properties show dense local interconnectivity and short average path length linking nodes in a short and efficient way, which is essential for efficient separation and functional integration of information especially during cognitive flexibility41–43 This network perspective is important, because executive functions and mechanisms of cognitive flexibility need to be understood in terms of dynamics in a network and oscillations in the alpha band have been suggested to coordinate top-down control processes and large-scale communication within and between neural networks. This is because responses have to be dynamically selected and reconfigured, goals and condition-action rules have to be determined and retrieved from working memory, and task sets have to become inhibited or deactivated1,2 If this is the case it is possible that under switching conditions the alpha frequency network shows lower small-world network properties compared to response repetition conditions. Both ERP-components have been shown to be modulated in the paradigm applied in this task
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