Principal Investigator: mgr Patrycja Kałamała

Research project objectives. Traditionally, the go/no-go task and the flanker task were investigated separately, but many recent studies have suggested that these two tasks may tap into the same neurocognitive mechanism of conflict resolution. The idea of the same underlying processes in both the go/no-go and the flanker tasks is motivated by observation of N2 event-related component in each of them. Since the N2 component is usually interpreted as a neural index of response inhibition, the response inhibition is assumed to be engaged in conflict resolution in both tasks. However, the evidence for this argument is so far limited. As a consequence, it is still unclear whether these two tasks tap a common conflict resolution mechanism or reflect functionally different mechanisms. Furthermore, in-depth review of literature on the go/no-go and the flanker tasks indicates that the N2 component manifests differently within different versions of a task and between paradigms. Given that the observation of the N2 component serves as a critical argument for equivalence of cognitive processes underlying resolution of conflict in the go/no-go and the flanker tasks, systematic investigation of the N2 trace is needed to warrant this argument. The planned project builds on our recent findings related to the electrophysiological underpinnings of performance in a flanker task and aims to better understand the cognitive mechanisms underlying conflict resolution in the go/no-go and the flanker tasks and to elucidate a functional role of the N2 ERP component in indexing conflict resolution and response inhibition. The project will address the two main questions: Question 1. Do the go/no-go and the flanker tasks tap into the same cognitive mechanism of conflict resolution?; Question 2. Does the N2 provide an accurate index of response inhibition in the flanker and the go/no-go tasks? Research project methodology. Within-subjects design, manipulation of the trial-type probability, as well as employment of ERP measurement will help to pinpoint behavioural and neural indices of conflict resolution in the go/no-go and the flanker tasks and, moreover, directly contrast indices across the tasks (Question 1). At the same time, manipulation of trial-type probability accompanied by measurement of the Lateralized Readiness Potential (LRP) should help to elucidate the functional role of the N2 in indexing response inhibition (Question 2). In the project, the LRP component will serve as an index of an amount of motor response preparation.Expected impact. According to the best of our knowledge, the proposed project will be the first attempt to directly contrast the indices of conflict resolution between the go/no-go and the flanker tasks. As a consequence, the project will serve as a primer to inform theories of cognitive control about the mechanisms of conflict resolution across these two commonly used paradigms. Furthermore, the project will bring better understanding of the N2 ERP component in indexing conflict resolution and response inhibition across different versions of the same paradigm and as well as across different paradigms. Additionally, it will elucidate how experimental manipulation of conflict strength can be used to explore conditions in which response inhibition operates. In a broader perspective, the project will offer a battery of experimental tasks that can be applied to the assessment of cognitive processes and determine atypical/impaired cognitive processes.