No-go Stimuli Research Articles

Appetitive and aversive motivation in dysphoria: A time-domain and time-frequency study of response inhibition

The study of emotional response inhibition could provide novel insight into dysphoria-related deficits in appetitive and aversive motivational systems. Therefore, dysphoric (N=21) and nondysphoric (N=21) participants completed an emotional Go/Nogo paradigm, including the presentation of pleasant, neutral and unpleasant pictures. Behavioral measures [reaction times (RTs), accuracy to Go and Nogo stimuli] and neural correlates (Go/Nogo-N2 and Go/Nogo-P3) of response inhibition were compared between the two groups. Time-frequency analysis was also used as a novel approach to disentangle the multiple processes underlying time-domain ERP data. A reduced Go/Nogo effect for P3 and oscillatory delta activity was found in response to pleasant and neutral, but not unpleasant, stimuli in dysphoric relative to nondysphoric individuals. These findings showed that dysphoric individuals need a reduced and/or less effortful response inhibition to pleasant stimuli, suggesting that dysphoria is characterized by under-engagement of appetitive rather than over-engagement of aversive motivational system.

Deficits in go/no-go task performance in male undergraduate high-risk alcohol users are driven by speeded responding to go stimuli

ABSTRACTBackground: Response disinhibition plays an important role in addictive behaviors. However, results of studies on the performance on response inhibition tasks of individuals evidencing potentially problematic levels of alcohol drinking are mixed. Objectives: We assessed conditions under which persons with a relatively high risk of alcohol dependence show inhibition deficits in such tasks and investigated the nature of those deficits. Methods: Fifty-eight male undergraduate students, 27 of which were high-risk drinkers according to the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, performed a go/no-go inhibition task with differing percentages of no-go trials (50% vs. 25%), stimulus presentation times (600 vs. 200 ms), and types of go and no-go stimuli (alcohol related vs. -unrelated). Response inhibition was indexed by response time (RT) to go trials and response accuracy on go and no-go trials. Results: There were no differences between low- and high-risk drinkers on any of the three outcome measures under the 600-ms stimulus presentation condition. Under the 200-ms condition, the high-risk drinkers showed faster RTs to go stimuli, and more errors on both go- and no-go trials than the low-risk drinkers, irrespective of type and percentage of no-go stimuli. However, the accuracy differences between the two groups disappeared after controlling for the RT on go trials, suggesting a speed-accuracy trade-off. Conclusion: High-risk drinkers’ response inhibition deficits are not restricted to alcohol-related cues and are especially likely to occur under conditions prompting fast responding. These findings could be used to inform treatment, suggesting the promotion of strategies aimed at preventing high-risk alcohol users from making quick decisions.

Do alcohol-dependent patients show different neural activation during response inhibition than healthy controls in an alcohol-related fMRI go/no-go-task?

Alcohol dependence is associated with impaired response inhibition and heightened cue reactivity towards alcohol-related stimuli. Several brain areas, but mainly prefrontal structures, have been linked to response inhibition in addiction. This study aimed at combining both aspects: salience of drug-associated cues and response inhibition using a go/no-go task with alcohol-associated stimuli during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Nineteen abstinent alcohol-dependent patients (ADP) and 21 healthy control subjects (HC) were compared on blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) responses during successful inhibition of no-go stimuli and successful reactions to go stimuli. ADP and HC did not significantly differ in their behavioural performance in the task. However, both groups performed worse during the inhibition of alcoholic-associated stimuli compared to neutral stimuli. On the neural level, ADP displayed enhanced BOLD activity relative to HC during successful response inhibition in several areas involved in visual processing, cognitive and impulse control, including occipital structures, anterior cingulate gyrus, medial frontal gyrus and medial orbitofrontal cortex. We interpret these findings as a possible compensation strategy for impaired cognitive processing. Furthermore, the results underline the impact of salience of alcohol-related stimuli on response inhibition, which seems to affect both ADP and HC.

Trial-Level Regressor Modulation for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Designs Requiring Strict Periodicity of Stimulus Presentations: Illustrated Using a Go/No-Go Task.

Computer-based assessment of many cognitive processes (eg, anticipatory and response readiness processes) requires the use of invariant stimulus display times (SDT) and intertrial intervals (ITI). Although designs with invariant SDTs and ITIs have been used in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research, such designs are problematic for fMRI studies because of collinearity issues. This study examined regressor modulation with trial-level reaction times (RT) as a method for improving signal detection in a go/no-go task with invariant SDTs and ITIs. The effects of modulating the go regressor were evaluated with respect to the detection of BOLD signal-change for the no-go condition. BOLD signal-change to no-go stimuli was examined when the go regressor was based on a (a) canonical hemodynamic response function (HRF), (b) RT-based amplitude-modulated (AM) HRF, and (c) RT-based amplitude and duration modulated (A&DM) HRF. Reaction time–based modulation reduced the collinearity between the go and no-go regressors, with A&DM producing the greatest reductions in correlations between the regressors, and greater reductions in the correlations between regressors were associated with longer mean RTs and greater RT variability. Reaction time–based modulation increased statistical power for detecting group-level no-go BOLD signal-change across a broad set of brain regions. The findings show the efficacy of using regressor modulation to increase power in detecting BOLD signal-change in fMRI studies in which circumstances dictate the use of temporally invariant stimulus presentations.

Relation between temporal perception and inhibitory control in the Go/No-Go task

This research was designed to replicate and extend findings concerning bidirectional interference between concurrent timing and inhibition tasks reported previously. Subjects performed serial temporal production and Go/No-Go (GNG) tasks under single-task and dual-task conditions in two experiments. The degree of inhibitory control required in the GNG tasks was manipulated by varying the proportion of go and no-go stimuli (experiment 1) and by instructing subjects to devote different amounts of attention to the dual tasks (experiment 2). The dual-task conditions in both experiments showed a pattern of mutual interference in which each task interfered with the other. In experiment 1, concurrent timing interfered more strongly with performance on a high inhibitory-demand GNG task compared with a low inhibitory-demand GNG task. In experiment 2, concurrent timing and GNG performance displayed a reciprocity effect in which greater attentiveness to one task improved performance for that task but diminished performance for the other task, and vice versa. These results support the view that temporal processing and inhibitory control depend upon a common pool of attentional resources, and point to the GNG task as a reliable research tool for investigators studying the role of attentional processes in time perception.

Changes in the Spatial Synchronization of Oscillations of Cortical Potentials in the α Range after Conditioning Go/No-Go Stimuli

Studies in healthy subjects (n = 35) using a model based on a cognitive set to an angry facial expression showed that use of positive and inhibitory Go/No-Go stimuli during the interstimulus period can produce marked changes in the top-down inhibitory influences of the prefrontal cortex on cortical areas involved in visual recognition, thus influencing set plasticity. The cortical topography of top-down influences in response to No-Go stimuli was determined in terms of local changes in the power of oscillations in potentials in the α range. Changes in spatial synchronization of α oscillations occurred only in the low-frequency range and depended on the level of set plasticity. In rigid forms of the set, coherence connections between the prefrontal cortex and other cortical zones were clearly more marked in the left hemisphere. In rigid forms of cognitive activity, left-hemisphere activation, with greater involvement of the speech and semantic functions, appears to play a compensatory role.

How does not responding to appetitive stimuli cause devaluation: Evaluative conditioning or response inhibition?

In a series of 6 experiments (5 preregistered), we examined how not responding to appetitive stimuli causes devaluation. To examine this question, a go/no-go task was employed in which appetitive stimuli were consistently associated with cues to respond (go stimuli), or with cues to not respond (either no-go cues or the absence of cues; no-go stimuli). Change in evaluations of no-go stimuli was compared to change in evaluations of both go stimuli and of stimuli not presented in the task (untrained stimuli). Experiments 1 to 3 show that not responding to appetitive stimuli in a go/no-go task causes devaluation of these stimuli regardless of the presence of an explicit no-go cue. Experiments 4a and 4b show that the devaluation effect of appetitive stimuli is contingent on the percentage of no-go trials; devaluation appears when no-go trials are rare, but disappears when no-go trials are frequent. Experiment 5 shows that simply observing the go/no-go task does not lead to devaluation. Experiment 6 shows that not responding to neutral stimuli does not cause devaluation. Together, these results suggest that devaluation of appetitive stimuli by not responding to them is the result of response inhibition. By employing both go stimuli and untrained stimuli as baselines, alternative explanations are ruled out, and apparent inconsistencies in the literature are resolved. These experiments provide new theoretical insight into the relation between not responding and evaluation, and can be applied to design motor response training procedures aimed at changing people's behavior toward appetitive stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record

Auditory evoked potential could reflect emotional sensitivity and impulsivity.

Emotional sensitivity and impulsivity could cause interpersonal conflicts and neuropsychiatric problems. Serotonin is correlated with behavioral inhibition and impulsivity. This study evaluated whether the loudness dependence of auditory evoked potential (LDAEP), a potential biological marker of central serotonergic activity, could reflect emotional sensitivity and impulsivity. A total of 157 healthy individuals were recruited, who performed LDAEP and Go/Nogo paradigms during electroencephalogram measurement. Barratt impulsivity scale (BIS), Conners’ Adult ADHD rating scale (CAARS), and affective lability scale (ALS) were evaluated. Comparison between low and high LDAEP groups was conducted for behavioural, psychological, and event-related potential (ERP) measures. The high LDAEP group showed significantly increased BIS, a subscale of the CAARS, ALS, and false alarm rate of Nogo stimuli compared to the low LDAEP group. LDAEP showed significant positive correlations with the depression scale, ALS scores, subscale of the CAARS and Nogo-P3 amplitude. In the source activity of Nogo-P3, the cuneus, lingual gyrus, and precentral gyrus activities were significantly increased in the high LDAEP group. Our study revealed that LDAEP could reflect emotional sensitivity and impulsivity. LDAEP, an auditory evoked potential could be a useful tool to evaluate emotional regulation.

Go and no-go P3 with rare and frequent stimuli in oddball tasks: A study comparing key-pressing with counting

The P3 component of event-related potentials (ERPs) is large at posterior scalp sites with rare go stimuli (go-P3) and at anterior sites with rare no-go stimuli (no-go P3). Most hypotheses on P3, including our S-R link reactivation notion, imply that these characteristics are independent of specific response modes. This assumption was here investigated by comparing ERPs between key-pressing and covert counting responses in oddball tasks that required responses to either frequent or rare stimuli. Replicating previous results, topographic differences between parietal rare go-P3 and fronto-central rare no-go P3 were much reduced with counting compared to key-press responses. Besides, while go-P3 was generally more positive than no-go P3 in the key-press tasks (except for fronto-central no-go P3 with rare stimuli) the reverse was true in the counting tasks. Thus, the characteristic posterior and fronto-central go and no-go topographies appear to be specific to hand movements. Moreover, P3s evoked in counting tasks might not simply be P3 proper, uncontaminated by movement-related potentials, but rather the go/no-go logic might differ between counting and key-pressing, with the oddball effects being affected by specific processes implemented for these particular response modes.

Developmental hearing loss impedes auditory task learning and performance in gerbils

The consequences of developmental hearing loss have been reported to include both sensory and cognitive deficits. To investigate these issues in a non-human model, auditory learning and asymptotic psychometric performance were compared between normal hearing (NH) adult gerbils and those reared with conductive hearing loss (CHL). At postnatal day 10, before ear canal opening, gerbil pups underwent bilateral malleus removal to induce a permanent CHL. Both CHL and control animals were trained to approach a water spout upon presentation of a target (Go stimuli), and withhold for foils (Nogo stimuli). To assess the rate of task acquisition and asymptotic performance, animals were tested on an amplitude modulation (AM) rate discrimination task. Behavioral performance was calculated using a signal detection theory framework. Animals reared with developmental CHL displayed a slower rate of task acquisition for AM discrimination task. Slower acquisition was explained by an impaired ability to generalize to newly introduced stimuli, as compared to controls. Measurement of discrimination thresholds across consecutive testing blocks revealed that CHL animals required a greater number of testing sessions to reach asymptotic threshold values, as compared to controls. However, with sufficient training, CHL animals approached control performance. These results indicate that a sensory impediment can delay auditory learning, and increase the risk of poor performance on a temporal task.

Comparison of Response Inhibition Behavior Between Methadone Maintenance Patients and Active Opiate Users

Background: Increasing evidence indicates that opiate users and methadone maintenance patients (MMPs) are impaired in executive control tasks and response inhibition behavior compared to healthy individuals; however, the cognitive functional difference between opiate addicts and MMPs has not been clarified. Objectives: This study employed Go/No-Go tasks to evaluate the response inhibition behavior in three groups: active opiate users, stable MMPs and healthy control subjects with negative urine analysis. Patients and Methods: In this study, 45 opiate-dependents (including opium and heroin), 50 successful methadone maintenance patients (MMPs) and 50 normal controls were recruited. These three groups were matched in terms of age, gender and education level. Each subject conducted the six variants of Go/No-Go tasks in a sequential order, after being given the instructions to respond to stimulus displayed on the screen by pressing the space bar as quickly as possible (Go stimuli) and withholding responses to other stimuli (No-Go stimuli). We used Mann-Whitney nonparametric analysis to compare the performances of opiate users, MMPs and healthy controls on Go/No-Go task scores. Results: In Go trials, opiate dependents and MMPs showed better performance than controls with lower omission errors, while in No-Go trials, opiate users and MMPs committed more errors and revealed poorer performance than the controls. No significant difference was found between opiate users and MMPs performance on Go or No-Go trials, and these groups were significantly faster than controls in response to targets on Go trials or non-targets on No-Go trials. Conclusions: Opiate users and MMPs showed significant deficits on measures of response inhibition when compared to the normal participants, while MMPs did not differ from opiate users in their ability to inhibit their response to non-targets.

Neural signature of behavioural inhibition in women with bulimia nervosa.

Impaired inhibitory control is considered a behavioural phenotype in patients with bulimia nervosa. However, the underlying neural correlates of impaired general and food-specific behavioural inhibition are largely unknown. Therefore, we investigated brain activation during the performance of behavioural inhibition to general and food-related stimuli in adults with bulimia nervosa. Women with bulimia and healthy control women underwent event-related fMRI while performing a general and a food-specific no-go task. We included 28 women with bulimia nervosa and 29 healthy control women in our study. On a neuronal level, we observed significant group differences in response to general no-go stimuli in women with bulimia nervosa with high symptom severity; compared with healthy controls, the patients showed reduced activation in the right sensorimotor area (postcentral gyrus, precentral gyrus) and right dorsal striatum (caudate nucleus, putamen). The present results are limited to adult women with bulimia nervosa. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether impaired behavioural inhibition in patients with this disorder are a cause or consequence of chronic illness. Our findings suggest that diminished frontostriatal brain activation in patients with bulimia nervosa contribute to the severity of binge eating symptoms. Gaining further insight into the neural mechanisms of behavioural inhibition problems in individuals with this disorder may inform brain-directed treatment approaches and the development of response inhibition training approaches to improve inhibitory control in patients with bulimia nervosa. The present study does not support greater behavioural and neural impairments to food-specific behavioural inhibition in these patients.

Male Smokers' and Non-Smokers' Response Inhibition in Go/No-Go Tasks: Effect of Three Task Parameters

Impaired response inhibition plays a major role in many addictive behaviors. However, in studies using go/no-go tasks, findings regarding the presence of response inhibition deficits in nicotine-dependent individuals are mixed. This might be due to differences between studies on a number of task parameters. Here we aimed to identify task conditions under which go/no-go task performance deficits can be observed in smokers and to characterize the nature of such deficits. Sixty-one male students (30 smokers, 31 non-smokers) performed a go/no-go task while independently manipulating three task parameters: (1) percentage no-go trials (50% or 25%), (2) stimulus presentation time (600 ms or 200 ms), and (3) nature of no-go stimuli (cigarette related or cigarette unrelated). Three measures, reaction time on go trials and percentage correct responses on go and no-go trials, served as performance indicators. Under 200-ms but not 600-ms stimulus presentation conditions, the smokers responded faster on go trials and made more errors on both go and no-go trials than the non-smokers did. These differences occurred irrespective of the percentage of no-go trials and nature of no-go stimuli. The accuracy differences disappeared after controlling for the response time differences, suggesting a strong speed-accuracy trade-off. This study contributes to unraveling the conditions under which smokers display impaired inhibition performance and helps to characterize the nature of this impairment. Under task conditions prompting fast responding, smokers are more prone to increase response speed and to make more errors than non-smokers.

Discussion – Understanding ERP components and behaviour in two-choice paradigms

Event-related potentials were measured to letters presented either to the left or the right of a fixation point that were preceded by a precue that indicated the position of the upcoming letter either correctly (valid trials) or incorrectly (invalid trials). One letter required a response (Go stimulus), while the other letter required no response (Nogo stimulus). In experiment I, Nogo letters occurred only on 25% of the trials, while in experiment II, Go and Nogo letters were equiprobable. In both experiments, Nogo stimuli elicited larger N2 components and P3s with a more anterior topography than did Go stimuli. The N2 enhancement elicited by Nogo stimuli showed a frontal maximum (most markedly when Go and Nogo stimuli were equiprobable) and was significantly influenced by precue validity. These results are discussed in terms of “Response Mismatch” and action inhibition processes.

EP 135. Boosting cognitive control with transcranial alternating current stimulation

Introduction Response inhibition, as a hallmark of executive control, refers to the suppression of actions that are no longer required or that are inappropriate, which supports flexible and goal-directed behaviour in ever-changing environments. In this study, we intend to prove whether the boosting of theta activity by electrical stimulation in the prefrontal cortex (pre-SMA & IFC) would (1) increase theta power in prefrontal cortex; reduce alpha power in OPC; (2) reduce number of errors in a continuous performance task; (3) to see whether pre-SMA or IFG is the important structure for motor response inhibition and process monitoring. Methods The studies were approved by the Ethic Committee of the Faculty of Medicine Christian-Albrechts University Kiel. Stimulation Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) was delivering by a battery driven stimulator (NeuroConn GmbH, Ilmenau, Germany) through conductive-rubber electrodes (9 cm 2 ). So far, 12 subjects participated in four different experimental studies and they received on separate days tACS at three frequencies (6 Hz over preSMA and over rIFG, 20 Hz (frequency of no interest) over rIFG and sham stimulation. The minimum period between sessions for a single subject was 7 days. To stimulate pre-SMA: 4 cm anterior to Cz ( matches Fz) and reference electrode over contralateral supraorbital area ; to stimulate IFG: crossing point between T8-Fz and AF8-Cz. Go/NoGo task each stimulus was displayed for 0.2 s and the inter-trial interval was 1.5 s. Participants were asked to respond to all digits except of “5” by pressing a button with the right index finger. Digits “1–4” and “6-9” are thus the Go stimuli and digit “5” the NoGo stimulus. Correct Go-trials were categorized as “hits”, correct No-Go-trials as “withholds”, and responses on No-Go as “false alarms”. Results Preliminary results with 14 subjects in each condition indicate that there’s a significant difference in reaction times between hits and false alarms (in all conditions), which is consistent with the literature. Regarding the differences between conditions, there are no significant statistical differences as of now, but this might be due to the small number of subjects in each condition. There seem to be slight trends for 6Hz pSMA compared to sham: Mean reaction times for hits and false alarms were highest for 6 Hz stimulation at the pSMA. Regarding the ratio of hits and false alarms (actual number divided by potential number), subjects had the highest ratio of hits in sham stimulation and the lowest ratio in 6 Hz stimulation of pSMA. The pattern for false alarms is similar: subjects had the lowest ratio of FAs in 6 Hz stimulation of pSMA with all other conditions appearing mostly equal. Conclusion Our behavioral results so far showed that tACS could have potential in modulating behavioral responses, however future studies could improve on this study by analyzing EEG-data as correlates of the behavioral data and having larger sample sizes.

The relevance of the irrelevant: Attention and task-set adaptation in prematurely born adults.

To investigate attention and task-set adaptation in a preterm born very low birth weight (PT/VLBW) population by means of event-related potential components from an adapted cued go/no-go task. P3 components after target and non-target cues, as well as target, no-go and non-target imperative stimuli were compared in 30 PT/VLBW young adults and 33 term-born controls. Changes in P3 amplitudes as a function of time-on-task were also investigated. The PT/VLBW group had larger P3 amplitudes to non-target cues and non-targets compared with controls. There were no significant group differences in the P3s to target or no-go stimuli. Moreover, the amplitude of the P3 to non-target cues and non-targets decreased significantly over time in the control group but not in the PT/VLBW group. PT/VLBW young adults allocate more attention to behaviorally irrelevant information than term-born controls, and persist in attending to this information over time. This is the first study to investigate ERP components in an adult population born preterm with very low birth weight.

State dependency of inhibitory control performance: an electrical neuroimaging study.

Behavioral and brain responses to stimuli not only depend on their physical features but also on the individuals' neurocognitive states before stimuli onsets. While the influence of pre-stimulus fluctuations in brain activity on low-level perceptive processes is well established, the state dependency of high-order executive processes remains unclear. Using a classical inhibitory control Go/NoGo task, we examined whether and how fluctuations in the brain activity during the period preceding the stimuli triggering inhibition influenced inhibitory control performance. Seventeen participants completed the Go/NoGo task while 64-channel electroencephalogram was recorded. We compared the event-related potentials preceding the onset of the NoGo stimuli associated with inhibition failures false alarms (FA) vs. successful inhibition correct rejections (CR) with data-driven statistical analyses of global measures of the topography and strength of the scalp electric field. Distributed electrical source estimations were used to localize the origin of the event-related potentials modulations. We observed differences in the global field power of the event-related potentials (FA>CR) without concomitant topographic modulations over the 40ms period immediately preceding NoGo stimuli. This result indicates that the same brain networks were engaged in the two conditions, but more strongly before FA than CR. Source estimations revealed that this effect followed from a higher activity before FA than CR within bilateral inferior frontal gyri and the right inferior parietal lobule. These findings suggest that uncontrolled quantitative variations in pre-stimulus activity within attentional and control brain networks influence inhibition performance. The present data thereby demonstrate the state dependency of cognitive processes of up to high-order executive levels.

Priority for one's own stimulus in joint performance: evidence from an event-related potential study.

To investigate priority of shared task representations (own vs. other) formed during joint task performance, event-related potentials were recorded while participants performed an auditory three-stimulus oddball task alone (individual condition) and with another participant (joint condition). Participants were required to discriminate between frequent standard tones and rare target tones, while ignoring nontargets assigned to a partner's action (i.e. no-go stimuli for one's own task performance). The parietal P3b was elicited for targets under both conditions. In contrast, P3b for nontargets was observed only in the joint condition, and in addition, it accompanied the frontal no-go P3. This implies that coactors share one another's task representations. Importantly, the emergence of P3b and no-go P3 for nontargets was delayed compared with P3b for targets, suggesting that shared task representations are serially applied to the stimulus processing and that one's own representations precede the other individual's representations.

Nogo Stimuli Do Not Receive More Attentional Suppression or Response Inhibition than Neutral Stimuli: Evidence from the N2pc, PD, and N2 Components in a Spatial Cueing Paradigm.

It has been claimed that stimuli sharing the color of the nogo-target are suppressed because of the strong incentive to not process the nogo-target, but we failed to replicate this finding. Participants searched for a color singleton in the target display and indicated its shape when it was in the go color. If the color singleton in the target display was in the nogo color, they had to withhold the response. The target display was preceded by a cue display that also contained a color singleton (the cue). The cue was either in the color of the go or nogo target, or it was in an unrelated, neutral color. With cues in the go color, reaction times were shorter when the cue appeared at the same location as the target compared to when it appeared at a different location. Also, electrophysiological recordings showed that an index of attentional selection, the N2pc, was elicited by go cues. Surprisingly, we failed to replicate cueing costs for cues in the nogo color that were originally reported by Anderson and Folk (2012). Consistently, we also failed to find an electrophysiological index of attentional suppression (the PD) for cues in the nogo color. Further, fronto-central event-related potentials to the cue display showed the same negativity for nogo and neutral stimuli relative to go stimuli, which is at odds with response inhibition and conflict monitoring accounts of the Nogo-N2. Thus, the modified cueing paradigm employed here provides little evidence that features associated with nogo-targets are suppressed at the level of attention or response selection. Rather, nogo-stimuli are efficiently ignored and attention is focused on features that require a response.

The Effect of Cognitive Fatigue on Metabolic and Psychological Parameters during High Intensity Exercise

The psychophysiological effects of cognitive fatigue are important because physical performance is often contingent on the ability to physically and mentally engage in a task. Pre-conditioning with a cognitive load increases subjective feelings of tiredness during prolonged exercise; however, the effect of cognitive fatigue on energy expenditure and exertion during high intensity exercise is unknown. PURPOSE: To determine the effect of cognitive fatigue on VO2 and perceived exertion during high intensity exercise. METHODS: 10 male and 6 female (age = 27.8 ± 3.9 yrs.) moderately trained participants performed high intensity exercise on 2 separate occasions in a counter-balanced design. Prior to each exercise, participants completed a cognitive task or watched a non-arousing video. Cognitive fatigue was induced by a 50 minute vigilance task where participants responded to a numeric Go No-Go stimulus on a computer screen. The whole body exercise consisted of continuous rounds of 3 exercises: pull-ups (5 reps), push-ups (10 reps) and squats (15 reps) which were performed for as many rounds as possible for 20 minutes. Oxygen uptake (VO2) and heart rate (HR) were recorded continuously during the exercise while rate of perceived exertion (RPE) was taken at 5 minute intervals. T-tests between days were performed for mean VO2 and HR while a repeated measures ANOVA was performed for RPE. Alpha level was set a priori at 0.05. RESULTS: There was no difference between cognitive fatigue and control conditions in VO2 (31.8±4.3 and 32.8±5.8 ml O2/kg/min, respectively), HR (162.7±10.3 and 162.9±10.1 bpm, respectively), along with no main effect for condition on RPE (16.5±2.0 and 16.0±2.3, respectively; P=0.09); however, RPE increased across time regardless of condition (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In contrast to endurance studies, there appears to be no effect of cognitive fatigue on VO2 or perceived exertion during high intensity exercise. Exercise modality and duration may play a role in cognitive fatigue due to differing metabolic and neuromuscular strategies. Further research is required to determine the mechanisms behind cognitive fatigue’s effect on physical performance.