Abstract
Sequential congruency effects are observed in interference tasks, in which reaction times (RTs) are shorter for congruent stimuli preceded by congruent (cC) than incongruent stimuli (iC), and RTs are longer for incongruent stimuli preceded by congruent (cI) than incongruent stimuli (iI). These effects are interpreted as resulting from incongruent stimuli triggering attentional control in the next trial, which reduces cognitive control. This study aimed to examine sequential congruency effects on event-related potential (ERP) components for Go- and Nogo-stimuli. We used the hybrid reverse Stroop Go/Nogo task. The stimuli were Kanji characters, “赤” (i.e., red) and “青” (i.e., blue) painted in congruent and incongruent colors. Participants responded to one of the two characters (i.e, the Go-stimulus) and stopped responding to the other character (i.e., the Nogo-stimulus). The results indicated that the Nogo-N1 was reduced by trials preceded by incongruent stimuli compared with congruent ones, suggesting that color processing was inhibited by attentional control; however, there was no reduction in the Go-N1. In addition, the Nogo-N2 amplitudes were larger for cI than iI and iC than cC. On the other hand, the Go-N2 was not modulated by sequential modulation effects, which was lower for incongruent stimuli than congruent stimuli. These results indicate that the Nogo-N2 is involved in cognitive control, whereas the Go-N2 is associated with selection processing. These findings suggest that the modulation of sequential congruency effects of N1 and N2 required the response inhibition task demand; however, Go-P3 and Nogo-P3 amplitudes were the largest for cI. Therefore, the time range of ERP components might be related to the susceptibility of an interaction effect between response inhibition task demand and sequential congruency effects.
Highlights
The participants conducting a Go/Nogo task are required to respond to one type of stimuli (i.e., Go-stimuli) and withhold responding to another type (i.e., Nogo stimuli)
A simple effect analysis showed a significant main effect of the present trial congruency on trials preceded by congruent stimuli [F (1,18) = 135.10, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.88], on trials preceded by incongruent stimuli [F (1,18) = 21.72, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.55], previous trial congruency on congruent stimuli in the present trial [F (1,18) = 34.15, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.65], and incongruent stimuli in the present trial [F (1,18) = 29.73, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.62]
These results indicated that the correct reaction times (RTs) was the longest for cI, longer for incongruent stimuli (iI) than incongruent stimuli (iC), and was the shortest for cC (Figure 2)
Summary
The participants conducting a Go/Nogo task are required to respond to one type of stimuli (i.e., Go-stimuli) and withhold responding to another type (i.e., Nogo stimuli). Go- and Nogo-stimuli are known to elicit different event-related potential (ERP) components. Reverse Stroop Effects on ERP scalp sites for Go-stimuli (the Go-P3 or the P3b; Polich, 2012). The P3 has been shown at more frontal sites for Nogo-stimuli (the Nogo-P3 or the P3a; Fallgatter and Strik, 1999; Polich, 2012). It is well known that rare target stimuli enhance the Go-P3 than frequent stimuli in the oddball task (Polich, 2007, 2012). Participants with short reaction times (RTs) might require more response inhibition effort than those with long RTs. The NogoP3 was larger in participants with short RTs compared with long RTs (Smith et al, 2006), suggesting that the Nogo-P3 is related to response inhibition (Gajewski and Falkenstein, 2013; Huster et al, 2013; Suzuki et al, 2020)
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