A role of the lateral prefrontal cortex in the congruency sequence effect revealed by transcranial direct current stimulation. (8th February 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Li, Nan; Wang, Ying; Jing, Fang; Zha, Rujing; Wei, Zhengde; Yang, Li‐Zhuang; Geng, Xiujuan; Tanaka, Keiji; Zhang, Xiaochu
• Is Part Of: Psychophysiology. Volume 58:Number 5(2021)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2021-02-08
• Subjects: cognitive control -- endogenous goal‐oriented function -- flanker task -- transcranial direct current stimulation; Psychophysiology -- Periodicals; 612.8
• DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13784
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0048-5772

Abstract

Abstract: Congruency effect is the increase in response time when relevant and irrelevant cues indicate incongruent rather than congruent responses. The congruency effect is smaller in the trial after an incongruent trial than after a congruent trial: this difference is known as the congruency sequence effect (CSE). Psychophysical and neural studies have suggested that the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) and the medial prefrontal cortex are associated with the CSE. In the present study, we applied anodal and cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation, which is thought to result in excitation and inhibition, respectively, on the LPFC, while human participants were performing a flanker task. We found that the CSE was increased under cathodal stimulation (inhibition) of the LPFC. Moreover, the LPFC stimulation modulated the congruency effect after a congruent trial. Further analyses suggested that the results cannot be explained by any of the currently prevailing hypotheses of the CSE, including the conflict monitoring hypothesis, feature integration hypothesis, and temporal learning account. Based on our findings, we propose that a new distinct mechanism might be involved in the CSE. Specifically, the LPFC might contribute to the CSE by maintaining the attention to the task‐relevant information, which is an endogenous goal‐oriented function and reduces the carry‐over of the task‐irrelevant information after a congruent trial. Abstract : The currently prevailing frameworks of the congruency sequence effect, including the conflict monitoring hypothesis, feature integration hypothesis, and temporal learning account, cannot explain recent evidence that the congruency effect after a congruent event contributed to the congruency sequence effect. Our finding that transcranial direct current stimulation of the lateral prefrontal cortex specifically modulated the congruency effect after a congruent event, suggested a distinct mechanism for the congruency sequence effect involved in the lateral prefrontal cortex.