From proactive to reactive control, and back: Electrophysiological
evidence for flexible adjustments in cognitive control
Abstract
Cognitive control is flexible and often based on two competing
processing modes: reactive vs. proactive control. This begs the question
of how human subjects can flexibly switch between them. In this EEG
study, we addressed this question by systematically altering the
contingency created between conflict and performance in different
conditions. Fifty-eight participants performed the confound-minimized
Stroop task wherein either congruent or incongruent trials were
selectively reinforced by an evaluative feedback. Behavioral results
showed that while reactive control improved the most when congruent
trials were reinforced, proactive control actually benefited from the
reinforcement of incongruent trials. Interestingly, at the EEG level, we
found that proactive control mostly influenced the N450 component, but
also increased attention allocated to the stimulus at the occipital P1
level. In comparison, reactive control mostly influenced and boosted
evaluative feedback processing at the P3 level. Moreover, we found that
although mid-frontal theta was increased by conflict and negative
feedback, it did not capture this flexibility in cognitive control, as
revealed by these ERP components. These findings suggest that proactive
and reactive control can have distinct electrophysiological signatures
when specific stimulus and feedback-locked ERP components are considered
concurrently.