Conflict adaptation in prefrontal cortex: Now you see it, now you don't

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49 Scopus citations

Abstract

Daily life requires people to monitor and resolve conflict arising from distracting information irrelevant to current goals. The highly influential conflict monitoring theory (CMT) holds that the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) detects conflict and subsequently triggers the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) to regulate that conflict. Multiple lines of evidence have provided support for CMT. For example, performance is faster on incongruent trials that follow other incongruent trials (iI), and is accompanied by reduced ACC and increased DLPFC activation (the conflict adaptation effect). In this fMRI study, we explored whether ACC-DLPFC conflict signaling can result in behavioral adjustments beyond on-line contexts. Participants completed a modified version of the Stroop conflict adaptation paradigm which tested for conflict adaptation effects on the current (. N) trial associated with not only the immediately preceding (. N - 1) trial, but also 2-back (. N - 2) trials. Results demonstrated evidence for direct relationships between ACC activity on N - 2 trials and both N trial DLPFC activity and behavioral adjustment when intervening trials were congruent (i.e., icI). In contrast, when N - 1 trials were incongruent (i.e., iiI), ACC-DLPFC signaling failed and conflict adaptation was absent. These results provide new evidence demonstrating that the conflict monitor-controller maintains previously experienced conflict in the service of subsequent behavioral adjustment. However, the processing of multiple, temporally proximal conflict signals takes a toll on the working memory (WM) system, which appears to require resetting in order to adapt our behavior to frequently changing environmental demands.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)76-85
Number of pages10
JournalCortex
Volume50
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2014

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Funding

This study was supported by NIA Grant R01 AG033036 and NSF Grant BCS-0814302 . The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH or NSF. We thank Sara Cilles for her assistance in recruiting and testing participants.

FundersFunder number
National Science Foundation (NSF)BCS-0814302
National Institute on AgingR01AG033036

    Keywords

    • Cognitive control
    • Conflict adaptation
    • Prefrontal cortex
    • fMRI

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology
    • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
    • Cognitive Neuroscience

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