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Siqi-Liu A, Egner T, Woldorff MG. Neural Dynamics of Context-Sensitive Adjustments in Cognitive Flexibility. J Cogn Neurosci. 2022;1-13doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_01813.
Siqi-Liu, A., Egner, T., & Woldorff, M. G. (2022). Neural Dynamics of Context-Sensitive Adjustments in Cognitive Flexibility. Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_01813
Siqi-Liu, Audrey, et al. "Neural Dynamics of Context-Sensitive Adjustments in Cognitive Flexibility." Journal of cognitive neuroscience vol. (2022): 1-13. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_01813
Siqi-Liu A, Egner T, Woldorff MG. Neural Dynamics of Context-Sensitive Adjustments in Cognitive Flexibility. J Cogn Neurosci. 2022 Jan 04;1-13. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_01813. Epub 2022 Jan 04. PMID: 35015871.
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J Cogn Neurosci. 2022 Jan 04;1-13. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_01813. Epub 2022 Jan 04.

Neural Dynamics of Context-Sensitive Adjustments in Cognitive Flexibility.

Journal of cognitive neuroscience

Audrey Siqi-Liu, Tobias Egner, Marty G Woldorff

Affiliations

  1. Duke University, Durham, NC.

PMID: 35015871 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01813

Abstract

To adaptively interact with the uncertainties of daily life, we must match our level of cognitive flexibility to contextual demands-being more flexible when frequent shifting between different tasks is required and more stable when the current task requires a strong focus of attention. Such cognitive flexibility adjustments in response to changing contextual demands have been observed in cued task-switching paradigms, where the performance cost incurred by switching versus repeating tasks (switch cost) scales inversely with the proportion of switches (PS) within a block of trials. However, the neural underpinnings of these adjustments in cognitive flexibility are not well understood. Here, we recorded 64-channel EEG measures of electrical brain activity as participants switched between letter and digit categorization tasks in varying PS contexts, from which we extracted ERPs elicited by the task cue and alpha power differences during the cue-to-target interval and the resting precue period. The temporal resolution of the EEG allowed us to test whether contextual adjustments in cognitive flexibility are mediated by tonic changes in processing mode or by changes in phasic, task cue-triggered processes. We observed reliable modulation of behavioral switch cost by PS context that was mirrored in both cue-evoked ERP and time-frequency effects but not by blockwide precue EEG changes. These results indicate that different levels of cognitive flexibility are instantiated after the presentation of task cues, rather than by being maintained as a tonic state throughout low- or high-switch contexts.

© 2022 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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