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Background. Previous studies has shown that conventional neurofeedback and cognitive rehabilitation can improve psychological outcomes in people with opioid use disorders. However, the effectiveness of LORETA Z-score neurofeedback (LZNFB) and attention bias modification training on quality of life and inhibitory control of these people has not been investigated yet. LZNFB targets deeper brain structures with higher precision, compared to conventional neurofeedback that typically focuses on surface EEG activity. The present study aims to compare the effect of these two methods on quality of life and response inhibition in men with opioid use disorders under methadone maintenance therapy (MMT). Methods. In this randomized controlled clinical trial with a pre-test, post-test, follow-up design, 30 men with opioid use disorders under MMT were randomly assigned into three groups of LZNFB, attention bias modification training, and control (MMT alone). The LZNFB and Cognitive Rehabilitation groups received 20 and 15 sessions of treatment, respectively. The Persian versions WHO Quality of Life-BREEF questionnaire and the Go/No-Go test were completed by the participants before, immediately after, and one month after interventions. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS v.22 software. Results. Both intervention groups showed a significant improvement in quality-of-life score and a significant reduction in response time at the post-test phase ( P  < .05), where LZNFB group showed more improvement in quality of life and more reduction in response inhibition. After one month, the increase in quality of life continued in both groups, while the decrease in response time continued only in the LZNFB group. Conclusion. Both LZNFB and attention bias modification training are effective in improving quality of life and response inhibition of men with OUD under MMT, however, LZNFB is more effective., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

The present study aims to develop and present a proof-of-concept for a stop signal task with effector-specificity and higher complexity. Sixteen participants performed a stop signal task developed for lower extremities using Fitlight System™. The effect of four different delays and two sessions on response time, stop signal reaction time and accuracy was assessed using two-way repeated-measures ANOVA. The reliability of outcomes was assessed using intraclass correlation coefficients. There was a significant main effect of delay on all outcomes and an interaction of delay and session on accuracy. The reliability of outcomes was substantial with dependency on delays. Our preliminary findings suggest the feasibility of stop signal principles within more complex movements and provide an example for the development of further tests in sports context.

Traditional conflict-based cognitive assessment tools are highly behaviorally restrictive, which prevents them from capturing the dynamic nature of human cognition, such as the tendency to make error-correcting responses. The cognitive game Tunnel Runner measures interference control, response inhibition, and response-rule switching in a less restrictive manner than traditional cognitive assessment tools by giving players movement control after an initial response and encouraging error-correcting responses. Nevertheless, error-correcting responses remain unused due to a limited understanding of what they measure and how to use them. To facilitate the use of error-correcting responses to measure and understand human cognition, we developed theoretically-grounded measures of error-correcting responses in Tunnel Runner and assessed whether they reflected the same cognitive functions measured via initial responses. Furthermore, we evaluated the measurement potential of error-correcting responses. We found that initial and error-correcting responses similarly reflected players' response inhibition and interference control, but not their response-rule switching. Furthermore, combining the two response types increased the reliability of interference control and response inhibition measurements. Lastly, error-correcting responses showed the potential to measure response inhibition on their own. Our results pave the way toward understanding and using post-decision change of mind data for cognitive measurement and other research and application contexts., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Dynamic cognitive psychometrics measures mental capacities based on the way behavior unfolds over time. It does so using models of psychological processes whose validity is grounded in research from experimental psychology and the neurosciences. However, these models can sometimes have undesirable measurement properties. We propose a "hybrid" modeling approach that achieves good measurement by blending process-based and descriptive components. We demonstrate the utility of this approach in the stop-signal paradigm, in which participants make a series of speeded choices, but occasionally are required to withhold their response when a "stop signal" occurs. The stop-signal paradigm is widely used to measure response inhibition based on a modeling framework that assumes a race between processes triggered by the choice and the stop stimuli. However, the key index of inhibition, the latency of the stop process (i.e., stop-signal reaction time), is not directly observable, and is poorly estimated when the choice and the stop runners are both modeled by psychologically realistic evidence-accumulation processes. We show that using a descriptive account of the stop process, while retaining a realistic account of the choice process, simultaneously enables good measurement of both stop-signal reaction time and the psychological factors that determine choice behavior. We show that this approach, when combined with hierarchical Bayesian estimation, is effective even in a complex choice task that requires participants to perform only a relatively modest number of test trials., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Deficiencies in response inhibition are associated with numerous mental health conditions, warranting innovative treatments. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a non-invasive brain stimulation technique, modulates cortical excitability and has shown promise in improving response inhibition. However, tDCS effects on response inhibition often yield contradictory findings. Previous research emphasized the importance of inter-individual factors that are mostly ignored in conventional meta-analyses of mean effects. We aimed to fill this gap and promote the complementary use of the coefficient of variation ratio and standardized mean effects. The systematic literature search included single-session and sham-controlled tDCS studies utilizing stop-signal task or Go-NoGo tasks, analyzing 88 effect sizes from 53 studies. Considering the impact of inter-individual factors, we hypothesized that variances increase in the active versus sham tDCS. However, the results showed that variances between both groups did not differ. Additionally, analyzing standardized mean effects supported previous research showing an improvement in the stop-signal task but not in the Go-NoGo task following active tDCS. These findings suggest that inter-individual differences do not increase variances in response inhibition, implying that the heterogeneity cannot be attributed to higher variance in response inhibition during and after active tDCS. Furthermore, methodological considerations are crucial for tDCS efficacy., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The benefit of food-specific inhibition training on modulating food valuation and eating behaviors has been established, but generalization to untrained foods is seldomly examined. This study investigated whether stimulus variability and practice order, found to effect generalization in motor learning, can improve generalization following food-specific inhibition training. Ninety-three young adults practiced the Go/No-Go task online in three training conditions: 1) Constant (N = 30): inhibition practiced on one food stimulus; 2) Variable-Blocked (N = 32): inhibition practiced on 6 food stimuli, each in a separate block; and 3) Variable-Random (N = 31): inhibition practiced on 6 food stimuli in random order. Consistent with our hypothesis, the Variable-Random group showed better generalization of inhibition to untrained foods than the Constant and the Variable-Blocked groups immediately after training, demonstrating the benefit of stimulus variability and random practice order. This effect was not present 24 h after training. The Variable-Random group also showed decreased desire to eat untrained foods, exhibiting generalization of food devaluation. However, this effect was only present 24 h after training. The Constant group showed increased desire to eat untrained foods immediately and 24 h after training. The Variable-Blocked group did not differ from either group in the desire to eat to untrained foods, suggesting that random order is important for exposing the benefit of variability. The findings illustrate that presenting various training items in random order can improve generalization of food-specific inhibition training. However, inconsistencies found in the timing of generalization effects and modest effect sizes warrant additional investigation into generalization principles of food-specific inhibition training., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Patients who have a yes-no reversal respond "yes" when they mean no and vice versa. The unintentional response can be made both verbally and with gestures (e.g., head shake or nod, thumbs up or down). Preliminary reports associate this phenomenon with 4-repeat tauopathies including primary progressive apraxia of speech (PPAOS), nonfluent/agrammatic primary progressive aphasia, and corticobasal syndrome; however, the significance and timing of this symptom relative to others are not well understood. Whereas some accounts associate yes-no reversals with other binary reversals (e.g., up/down, hot/cold) and attribute the reversals to disturbances of selection within the language system, others implicate more general inhibitory control processes. Here, we compared clinical and neuroimaging findings across 30 patients with PPAOS (apraxia of speech in the absence of aphasia), 15 of whom had a yes-no reversal complaint and 15 who did not. The two groups did not differ on any of the language or motor speech measures; however, patients who had the yes-no reversal received lower scores on the Frontal Assessment Battery and motor assessments. They also had greater hypometabolism in the left supplementary motor area and bilateral caudate nuclei on [ 18 F]-fluorodeoxyglucose PET, but only the right caudate nucleus cluster survived correction for multiple comparisons. We interpret these results to suggest that the yes-no reversal phenomenon is associated with cognitive abilities that are supported by the frontostriatal network; more specifically, impaired response inhibition., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors do not have any relevant conflicts of interest to disclose at the time of submission., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Trichotillomania (TTM) is associated with impairments in response inhibition and cognitive flexibility, but it is unclear how such impairments relate to treatment outcome. The present study examined pre-treatment response inhibition and cognitive flexibility as predictors of treatment outcome, change in these domains from pre-to post-treatment, and associations with TTM severity. Participants were drawn from a randomized controlled trial comparing acceptance-enhanced behavior therapy (AEBT) to psychoeducation and supportive therapy (PST) for TTM. Adults completed assessments at pre-treatment (n = 88) and following 12 weeks of treatment (n = 68). Response inhibition and cognitive flexibility were assessed using the Stop Signal Task and Object Alternation Task, respectively. Participants completed the MGH-Hairpulling Scale. Independent evaluators administered the NIMH-Trichotillomania Severity Scale and Clinical Global Impressions-Improvement Scale. Higher pre-treatment TTM severity was associated with poorer pre-treatment cognitive flexibility, but not response inhibition. Better pre-treatment response inhibition performance predicted positive treatment response and lower post-treatment TTM symptom severity, irrespective of treatment assignment. Cognitive flexibility did not predict treatment response. After controlling for age, neither neurocognitive variable changed during treatment. Response inhibition and cognitive flexibility appear uniquely related to hair pulling severity and treatment response in adults with TTM. Implications for treatment delivery and development are discussed., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest Ms. Barber, Dr. Deckersbach, Mr. Bauer, Dr. Compton, Dr. Robinson, Dr. Saunders, and Dr. Franklin declare that they have no conflicts of interest. Dr. Woods receives book royalties from Guilford Press, Springer Press, and Oxford University Press. Dr. Twohig has books with New Harbinger and Oxford University Press, and an online course with Praxis CET. Dr. Ricketts has received research funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and the TLC Foundation for Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors. She has received honoraria from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Springer Nature., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Multiple studies reveal that a requirement to stop a response to appetitive food stimuli causes devaluation of these stimuli. However, the mechanism underlying food devaluation after stopping is still under debate. The immediate-affect theory suggests that an increase in negative affect after stopping a response is the driving force for food devaluation. A competing value-updating theory presumes that food devaluation after stopping occurs through the need to align behavior with goals. The current study assessed how food devaluation after response inhibition is influenced by negative emotional reactivity and behavior-goal alignment on a trial-by-trial basis. The study included 60 healthy participants who completed a Food-Stop-Signal-Emotion task. Participants categorized high vs. low-calorie food stimuli and stopped their response upon encountering a stop signal. Subsequently, participants made subjective negativity ratings of negative- or neutral-valenced emotional images, and rated their desire to eat the previously depicted food. In contrast to predictions made by the immediate-affect account, food devaluation after stopping was not mediated nor moderated via changes in negative emotional reactivity after stopping. In support of the value-updating account, food devaluation was modulated by behavior-goal alignment, indicated by larger food devaluation after successful vs. failed stopping. In agreement with this theory, the findings indicate that devaluation occurs more strongly when performance aligns with the task requirement. This study sheds light on the mechanism that likely underlies food devaluation after stopping. Implications regarding applied use of food-inhibition trainings are discussed., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors have no conflict of interests to declare., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The neural network mediating successful response inhibition mainly includes right hemisphere activation of the pre-supplementary motor area, inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), subthalamic nucleus (STN), and caudate nucleus. However, the causal role of these regions in the inhibitory network is undefined. Five patients with Parkinson's disease were assessed prior to and after therapeutic thermal ablation of the right STN in two separate functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) sessions while performing a stop-signal task. Initiation times were faster but motor inhibition with the left hand (contralateral to the lesion) was significantly impaired as evident in prolonged stop-signal reaction times. Reduced inhibition after right subthalamotomy was associated (during successful inhibition) with the recruitment of basal ganglia regions outside the established inhibitory network. They included the putamen and caudate together with the anterior cingulate cortex and IFG of the left hemisphere. Subsequent network connectivity analysis (with the seed over the nonlesioned left STN) revealed a new inhibitory network after right subthalamotomies. Our results highlight the causal role of the right STN in the neural network for motor inhibition and the possible basal ganglia mechanisms for compensation upon losing a key node of the inhibition network., (© 2024 The Author(s). Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The New York Academy of Sciences.)

Executive functions are essential for adaptive behavior. One executive function is the so-called 'interference control' or conflict monitoring another one is inhibitory control (i.e., action restraint and action cancelation). Recent evidence suggests an interplay of these processes, which is conceptually relevant given that newer conceptual frameworks imply that nominally different action/response control processes are explainable by a small set of cognitive and neurophysiological processes. The existence of such overarching neural principles has as yet not directly been examined. In the current study, we therefore use EEG tensor decomposition methods, to look into possible common neurophysiological signatures underlying conflict-modulated action restraint and action cancelation as mechanism underlying response inhibition. We show how conflicts differentially modulate action restraint and action cancelation processes and delineate common and distinct neural processes underlying this interplay. Concerning the spatial information modulations are similar in terms of an importance of processes reflected by parieto-occipital electrodes, suggesting that attentional selection processes play a role. Especially theta and alpha activity seem to play important roles. The data also show that tensor decomposition is sensitive to the manner of task implementation, thereby suggesting that switch probability/transitional probabilities should be taken into consideration when choosing tensor decomposition as analysis method. The study provides a blueprint of how to use tensor decomposition methods to delineate common and distinct neural mechanisms underlying action control functions using EEG data., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest There are no conflicts of interest, (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Females are more likely to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than males. Impaired inhibition has been identified as a mechanism for PTSD development, but studies on potential sex differences in this neurobiological mechanism and how it relates to PTSD severity and progression are relatively rare. Here, we examined sex differences in neural activation during response inhibition and PTSD following recent trauma., Methods: Participants (n = 205, 138 female sex assigned at birth) were recruited from emergency departments within 72 hours of a traumatic event. PTSD symptoms were assessed 2 weeks and 6 months posttrauma. A Go/NoGo task was performed 2 weeks posttrauma in a 3T magnetic resonance imaging scanner to measure neural activity during response inhibition in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, right inferior frontal gyrus, and bilateral hippocampus. General linear models were used to examine the interaction effect of sex on the relationship between our regions of interest and the whole brain, PTSD symptoms at 6 months, and symptom progression between 2 weeks and 6 months., Results: Lower response inhibition-related ventromedial prefrontal cortex activation 2 weeks posttrauma predicted more PTSD symptoms at 6 months in females but not in males, while greater response inhibition-related right inferior frontal gyrus activation predicted lower PTSD symptom progression in males but not females. Whole-brain interaction effects were observed in the medial temporal gyrus and left precentral gyrus., Conclusions: There are sex differences in the relationship between inhibition-related brain activation and PTSD symptom severity and progression. These findings suggest that sex differences should be assessed in future PTSD studies and reveal potential targets for sex-specific interventions., (Copyright © 2024 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

In the spatial Stroop task, an arrow target produces a spatial Stroop effect, whereas a gaze target elicits a reversed congruency effect. The reversed congruency effect has been explained by the unique attentional mechanisms of eye gaze. However, recent studies have shown that not only gaze but arrow targets produced a reversed congruency effect when embedded in a complex background. The present study investigated whether non-gaze targets produce a reversed congruency effect. In Experiments 1 and 2, we used the tongue, which is not commonly used to indicate spatial directions in daily life, as a target in the spatial Stroop task, in addition to the conventional gaze and arrows. In Experiment 3, we used arrow stimuli embedded in a complex background as a target. Participants judged the left/right direction of the target presented in the left or right visual field. Although arrow and gaze targets replicated previous findings (spatial Stroop and reversed congruency effect, respectively), the tongue target produced a reversed congruency effect (Experiments 1 and 2). The spatial Stroop effect of arrow targets disappeared when they were in a complex background (Experiment 3). These results are inconsistent with previous accounts emphasising the unique status of eye gaze. We propose that temporal decay of the location code and response inhibition are responsible for the reversal of spatial interference., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Background and Objectives: Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED) is an impulsive aggression disorder with self-control problems. However, the mechanisms underpinning the self-control problems in IED have not been clearly investigated. Therefore, this study examined the nature of self-control problems and their types, including cognitive inhibition, behavioral inhibition, and emotional interference in IED., Methods: Participants included three groups: IED (n = 54), psychiatric control (n = 59), and healthy control (n = 62). They were first screened with SCL-90-R, and then they were clinically interviewed. They all did computerized neurocognitive tasks, including Color-Word Stroop Task, Emotional Stroop Task, Go-NoGo Task, and Stop-Signal Task., Results: MANOVA analyses showed that the IED group had poorer performance in cognitive inhibition, response inhibition, and increased emotional interference than the two psychiatric and healthy control groups. They performed much worse than the other two groups, particularly in action cancellation (Stop-Signal Task), and showed increasingly emotional interference., Limitations: The brain reaction of individuals while doing the tasks was not examined, and some variables were not measured. Also, it is unclear how the emotional eruption interferes with cognitive content and behavioral inhibition., Conclusions: These findings indicate that self-control problems in IED can be due to deficient cognitive, emotional, and behavioral inhibitions, each appearing sequentially during a step-by-step process and facilitating the onset of IED signs and symptoms. Such a distinguished understanding of the role of neurocognitive mechanisms can lead to the development of accurate explanatory approaches and increase the effectiveness of treatment., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest There were no financial interests or potential conflicts of interest in the write-up of this manuscript. The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Studies of COMT Val 158 Met suggest that the neural circuitry subserving inhibitory control may be modulated by this functional polymorphism altering cortical dopamine availability, thus giving rise to heritable differences in behaviors. Using an anatomically-constrained magnetoencephalography method and stratifying the sample by COMT genotype, from a larger sample of 153 subjects, we examined the spatial and temporal dynamics of beta oscillations during motor execution and inhibition in 21 healthy Met 158 /Met 158 (high dopamine) or 21 Val 158 /Val 158 (low dopamine) genotype individuals during a Go/NoGo paradigm. While task performance was unaffected, Met 158 homozygotes demonstrated an overall increase in beta power across regions essential for inhibitory control during early motor preparation (∼100 ms latency), suggestive of a global motor "pause" on behavior. This increase was especially evident on Go trials with slow response speed and was absent during inhibition failures. Such a pause could underlie the tendency of Met 158 allele carriers to be more cautious and inhibited. In contrast, Val 158 homozygotes exhibited a beta drop during early motor preparation, indicative of high response readiness. This decrease was associated with measures of behavioral disinhibition and consistent with greater extraversion and impulsivity observed in Val homozygotes. These results provide mechanistic insight into genetically-determined interindividual differences of inhibitory control with higher cortical dopamine associated with momentary response hesitation, and lower dopamine leading to motor impulsivity., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Response inhibition, the intentional stopping of planned or initiated actions, is often considered a key facet of control, impulsivity, and self-regulation. The stop signal task is argued to be the purest inhibition task we have, and it is thus central to much work investigating the role of inhibition in areas like development and psychopathology. Most of this work quantifies stopping behavior by calculating the stop signal reaction time as a measure of individual stopping latency. Individual difference studies aiming to investigate why and how stopping latencies differ between people often do this under the assumption that the stop signal reaction time indexes a stable, dispositional trait. However, empirical support for this assumption is lacking, as common measures of inhibition and control tend to show low test-retest reliability and thus appear unstable over time. The reasons for this could be methodological, where low stability is driven by measurement noise, or substantive, where low stability is driven by a larger influence of state-like and situational factors. To investigate this, we characterized the split-half and test-retest reliability of a range of common behavioral and electrophysiological measures derived from the stop signal task. Across three independent studies, different measurement modalities, and a systematic review of the literature, we found a pattern of low temporal stability for inhibition measures and higher stability for measures of manifest behavior and non-inhibitory processing. This pattern could not be explained by measurement noise and low internal consistency. Consequently, response inhibition appears to have mostly state-like and situational determinants, and there is little support for the validity of conceptualizing common inhibition measures as reflecting stable traits., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Inhibitory control, as an essential cognitive ability, affects the development of higher cognitive functions. Rhythmic perceptual stimulation has been used to improve cognitive abilities. It is unclear, however, whether it can be used to improve inhibitory control. This study used the Go/NoGo task and the Stroop task to assess various levels of inhibitory control using rhythmic audio-visual stimuli as the stimulus mode. Sixty subjects were randomly divided into three groups to receive 6 Hz, 10 Hz, and white noise stimulation for 30 min. Two tasks were completed by each subject both before and after the stimulus. Before and after the task, closed-eye resting EEG data were collected. The results showed no differences in behavioral and EEG measures of the Go/NoGo task among the three groups. While both 6 Hz and 10 Hz audio-visual stimulation reduced the conflict effect in the Stroop task, only 6 Hz audio-visual stimulation improved the amplitude of the N2 component and decreased the conflict score. Although rhythmic audio-visual stimulation did not enhance response inhibition, it improved conflict inhibition.

Historically, the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) has been implicated in a variety of behaviors ranging from reversal learning and inhibitory control to more complex representations of reward value and task space. While modern interpretations of the OFC's function have focused on a role in outcome evaluation, these cognitive processes often require an organism to inhibit a maladaptive response or strategy. Single-unit recordings from the OFC in rats performing a stop-change task show that the OFC responds strongly to STOP trials. To investigate the role that the OFC plays in stop-change performance, we expressed halorhodopsin (eNpHR3.0) in excitatory neurons in the OFC and tested rats on the stop-change task. Previous work suggests that the OFC differentiates between STOP trials based on trial sequence (i.e., gS trials: STOP trials preceded by a GO vs sS trials: STOP trials preceded by a STOP). We found that yellow light activation of the eNpHR3.0-expressing neurons significantly decreased accuracy only on STOP trials that followed GO trials (gS trials). Further, optogenetic inhibition of the OFC speeded reaction times on error trials. This suggests that the OFC plays a role in inhibitory control processes and that this role needs to be accounted for in modern interpretations of OFC function., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interests., (Copyright © 2024 Brockett et al.)

Maladaptive personality traits, such as 'dark personalities' are found to result in a diverse set of negative outcomes, including paraphilic interests and associated (illegal) behaviors. It is however unclear how these are exactly related, and if related, if then only those individuals higher on dark personality traits and higher impulsivity engage in paraphilic behaviors. In the current study, 50 participants were recruited to investigate the relationship between Dark Tetrad personality traits (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism and everyday sadism), paraphilic interests (arousal and behavior) and the moderating role of impulsivity. Personality and paraphilic interests were investigated through self-report questionnaires. Impulsivity was measured both through self-reported dysfunctional impulsivity and the P3 event related potential using electroencephalography during the Go/No-Go task (i.e. response inhibition). The results showed that there was a positive association between psychopathy, sadism and paraphilic interests. Whereas everyday sadism was associated with paraphilic (self-reported) arousal, psychopathy was associated with paraphilic behavior. Although P3 amplitude was not associated with paraphilic interests, self-reported dysfunctional impulsivity was associated with paraphilic behavior specifically. However, there was no moderating role of dysfunctional impulsivity and response inhibition (P3) in the relationship between psychopathy and paraphilic behavior. Findings indicate that the relation between specific dark personalities and paraphilic interests may be more complex than initially thought. Nevertheless, risk assessment and intervention approaches for paraphilia and related behavior both may benefit from incorporating Dark Tetrad and impulsivity measurements., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Neural analyses of response inhibition rely on separating trials with and without a behavioral response. Can researchers be sure the absence of a behavioral outcome equates to the presence of inhibitory control? We emphasize advancing response inhibition research by utilizing peripheral measures of response progress to define behavioral stopping contrasts., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: It is unclear whether neurotoxicity due to the antiretroviral drug efavirenz (EFV) results in neurocognitive impairment in people living with HIV (PLWH). Previously, we found that discontinuing EFV was associated with improved processing speed and attention on neuropsychological assessment. In this imaging study, we investigate potential neural mechanisms underlying this cognitive improvement using a BOLD fMRI task assessing cortical and subcortical functioning., Methods: Asymptomatic adult PLWH stable on emtricitabine/tenofovirdisoproxil/efavirenz were randomly (1:2) assigned to continue their regimen (n = 12) or to switch to emtricitabine/tenofovirdisoproxil/rilpivirine (n = 28). At baseline and after 12 weeks, both groups performed the Stop-Signal Anticipation Task, which tests reactive and proactive inhibition (indicative of subcortical and cortical functioning, respectively), involving executive functioning, working memory, and attention. Behavior and BOLD fMRI activation levels related to processing speed and attention Z-scores were assessed in 17 pre-defined brain regions., Results: Both groups had comparable patient and clinical characteristics. Reactive inhibition behavioral responses improved for both groups on week 12, with other responses unchanged. Between-group activation did not differ significantly. For reactive inhibition, positive Pearson coefficients were observed for the change in BOLD fMRI activation levels and change in processing speed and attention Z-scores in all 17 regions in participants switched to emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil/rilpivirine, whereas in the control group, negative correlation coefficients were observed in 10/17 and 13/17 regions, respectively. No differential pattern was observed for proactive inhibition., Conclusion: Potential neural mechanisms underlying cognitive improvement after discontinuing EFV in PLWH were found in subcortical functioning, with our findings suggesting that EFV's effect on attention and processing speed is, at least partially, mediated by reactive inhibition., Trial Registration: Clinicaltrials.gov identifier [NCT02308332]., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Learning to stop responding is a fundamental process in instrumental learning. Animals may learn to stop responding under a variety of conditions that include punishment-where the response earns an aversive stimulus in addition to a reinforcer-and extinction-where a reinforced response now earns nothing at all. Recent research suggests that punishment and extinction may be related manifestations of a common retroactive interference process. In both paradigms, animals learn to stop performing a specific response in a specific context, suggesting direct inhibition of the response by the context. This process may depend on the infralimbic cortex (IL), which has been implicated in a variety of interference-based learning paradigms including extinction and habit learning. Despite the behavioral parallels between extinction and punishment, a corresponding role for IL in punishment has not been identified. Here we report that, in a simple arrangement where either punishment or extinction was conducted in a context that differed from the context in which the behavior was first acquired, IL inactivation reduced response suppression in the inhibitory context, but not responding when it "renewed" in the original context. In a more complex arrangement in which two responses were first trained in different contexts and then extinguished or punished in the opposite one, IL inactivation had no effect. The results advance our understanding of the effects of IL in retroactive interference and the behavioral mechanisms that can produce suppression of a response., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: A few studies are emerging to explore the issue of how aging promotes emotional response inhibition. However, there is a lack of empirical study concerning the impact of pathological cognitive impairment on emotional response inhibition. The present study investigated the effect of emotion on response inhibition in people with mild cognitive impairment, the stage of cognitive impairment before dementia., Methods: We used two emotional stop-signal tasks to explore whether the dual competition framework considering limited cognitive resources could explain the relationship between emotion and response inhibition in mild cognitive impairment., Results: The results showed that negative emotions prolonged N2 latency. The Go trial accuracy was reduced in the high-arousal negative conditions and the stop-signal reaction time was prolonged under high-arousal conditions. This study also verified impaired response inhibition in mild cognitive impairment and found that negative emotions prolonged P3 latency in mild cognitive impairment., Conclusion: Emotional information interferes with response inhibition in mild cognitive impairment populations, possibly because emotional information captures more attentional resources, thus interfering with response inhibition that relies on common-pool resources., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Wang, Li, Yu, Zhao, Shan, Xing and Li.)

Background: The aim of this study is to investigate the acute effects of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on reaction time, response inhibition and attention in fencers., Methods: Sixteen professional female fencers were recruited, and subjected to anodal tDCS and sham stimulation in the primary motor area (M1) one week apart in a randomized, crossover, single-blind design. A two-factor analysis of variance with repeated measures was used to analyze the effects of stimulation conditions (anodal stimulation, sham stimulation) and time (pre-stimulation, post-stimulation) on reaction time, response inhibition, and attention in fencers., Results: The study found a significant improvement in response inhibition and attention allocation from pre-stimulation to post-stimulation following anodal tDCS but not after sham stimulation. There was no statistically significant improvement in reaction time and selective attention., Conclusions: A single session of anodal tDCS could improve response inhibition, attention allocation in female fencers. This shows that tDCS has potential to improve aspects of an athlete's cognitive performance, although we do not know if such improvements would transfer to improved performance in competition. However, more studies involving all genders, large samples, and different sports groups are needed in the future to further validate the effect of tDCS in improving the cognitive performance of athletes., Competing Interests: The authors declare there are no competing interests., (©2024 Dai et al.)

(1) Background: Response inhibition refers to the conscious ability to suppress behavioral responses, which is crucial for effective cognitive control. Currently, research on response inhibition remains controversial, and the neurobiological mechanisms associated with response inhibition are still being explored. The Go/No-Go task is a widely used paradigm that can be used to effectively assess response inhibition capability. While many studies have utilized equal numbers of Go and No-Go trials, how different ratios affect response inhibition remains unknown; (2) Methods: This study investigated the impact of different ratios of Go and No-Go conditions on response inhibition using the Go/No-Go task combined with event-related potential (ERP) techniques; (3) Results: The results showed that as the proportion of Go trials decreased, behavioral performance in Go trials significantly improved in terms of response time, while error rates in No-Go trials gradually decreased. Additionally, the NoGo-P3 component at the central average electrodes (Cz, C1, C2, FCz, FC1, FC2, PCz, PC1, and PC2) exhibited reduced amplitude and latency; (4) Conclusions: These findings indicate that different ratios in Go/No-Go tasks influence response inhibition, with the brain adjusting processing capabilities and rates for response inhibition. This effect may be related to the brain's predictive mechanism model.

Objective: This investigation aimed to compare the neuropsychological dysfunctions of coronavirus (COVID-19)-recovered nurses to those of healthy nurses., Methodology: The present research method was descriptive and causal-comparative, in which the statistical population consisted of nurses with a history of COVID disease and working in the COVID department of public hospitals in Isfahan city. The available method selected 30 nurses with a history of illness and compared them with 30 other nurses from the same hospitals. We collected data using the "go/no go" test, the Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST), and direct and inverted word reading tests. We also analyzed the collected data using multivariate analysis of variance., Results: The results showed a significant difference between nurses with a history of COVID disease and normal nurses in memory performance, the total error of the Wisconsin card sorting test, and the error of committing and inappropriately inhibiting the go/no go task (P < 0.01). However, there is no significant difference between the two groups in the number of classes, the error of perseveration in the Wisconsin test, or the reaction time of the go/no task (P < 0.05)., Conclusion: Therefore, the present study's results indicate that nurses recovering from COVID-19 perform worse than normal nurses in memory functions, cognitive flexibility, and response inhibition within one to three months of recovery., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2024, Salemi et al.)

Background: Response inhibition is a core cognitive impairment in bipolar disorder (BD), leading to increased impulsivity in BD. However, the relationship between the neural mechanisms underlying impaired response inhibition and impulsivity in BD is not yet clear. Individuals who are genetically predisposed to BD give a way of identifying potential endophenotypes., Methods: A total of 97 participants, including 39 patients with BD, 22 unaffected relatives (UR) of patients with BD, and 36 healthy controls performed a Go/No-Go task during magnetoencephalography. We carried out time-frequency and connectivity analysis on MEG data., Results: Decreased beta power, prolonged latency and increased peak frequency in rIFG, decreased beta power in pre-SMA and reduced rIFG-to-pre-SMA connectivity were found in BD relative to healthy controls. In the UR group, we found a decrease in the beta power of pre-SMA and prolonged latency of rIFG. Furthermore, increased motor impulsiveness in BD was related to abnormal alterations in beta oscillatory activity of rIFG and functional connectivity between rIFG and pre-SMA., Conclusions: Hypoactivity activity in rIFG and impaired dominant role of rIFG in the prefrontal control network may underlie the neuropathology of response inhibition dysfunction, resulting increased motor impulsivity in BD. Our findings point to measuring rIFG dysfunction as a potential means of identifying individuals at genetic high risk for transition to BD disease expression., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors have no conflict of interest to declare., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Response inhibition is a key neurocognitive factor contributing to impulsivity in mood disorders. Here, we explored the common and differential alterations of neural circuits associated with response inhibition in bipolar disorder (BD) and unipolar disorder (UD) and whether the oscillatory signatures can be used as early biomarkers in BD., Methods: 39 patients with BD, 36 patients with UD, 29 patients initially diagnosed with UD who later underwent diagnostic conversion to BD, and 36 healthy controls performed a Go/No-Go task during MEG scanning. We carried out time-frequency and connectivity analysis on MEG data. Further, we performed machine learning using oscillatory features as input to identify bipolar from unipolar depression at the early clinical stage., Results: Compared to healthy controls, patients had reduced rIFG-to-pre-SMA connectivity and delayed activity of rIFG. Among patients, lower beta power and higher peak frequency were observed in BD patients than in UD patients. These changes enabled accurate classification between BD and UD with an accuracy of approximately 80 %., Conclusions: The inefficiency of the prefrontal control network is a shared mechanism in mood disorders, while the abnormal activity of rIFG is more specific to BD. Neuronal responses during response inhibition could serve as a diagnostic biomarker for BD in early stage., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Inhibitory control performance may differ greatly as a function of individual differences such as anxiety. Nonetheless, how cognitive control proficiency might be influenced by exposure to various environments and how anxiety traits might impact these effects remain unexplored. A cohort of thirty healthy volunteers participated in the study. Participants performed a Go/No-Go task before exposure to a 'forest' and 'urban' virtual environment, in a counterbalanced design, before repeating the GNG task. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was finally filled-in. Our findings unveiled an initial negative correlation between anxiety trait levels and GNG task performance, consistent with the established literature attributing difficulties in inhibitory functionality to anxiety. Additionally, different environmental exposures reported opposite trends. Exposure to the 'forest' environment distinctly improved the GNG performance in relation to anxiety traits, while the 'urban' setting demonstrated adverse effects on task performance. These results underscore the intricate relationship among cognitive control, environmental exposure, and trait anxiety. In particular, our findings highlight the potential of natural settings, such as forests, to mitigate the impact of anxiety on inhibition. This might have implications for interventions aimed at improving cognitive control.

Response inhibition difficulties are reported in individuals with eating disorders (EDs), anxiety, and depression. Although ED symptoms and internalizing symptoms co-occur in preadolescence, there is limited research examining associations between these symptoms and response inhibition in this age group. This study is the first to investigate the associations between behavioral and neural markers of response inhibition, disordered eating (DE), and internalizing symptoms in a community sample of preadolescents. Forty-eight children (M age = 10.95 years, 56.3% male) completed a Go/NoGo task, whereas electroencephalography was recorded. Self-report measures of DE and internalizing symptoms were collected. Higher levels of anxiety and depression were associated with neural markers of suboptimal response inhibition (attenuated P3 NoGo amplitudes) in preadolescence. In contrast, higher levels of depression were associated with greater response inhibition at a behavioral level. These findings suggest internalizing symptoms in preadolescence are associated with P3-indexed difficulties in evaluation and monitoring, but these are not sufficient to disrupt behavioral performance on a response inhibition task. This pattern may reflect engagement of compensatory processes to support task performance. DE was not significantly associated with response inhibition, suggesting that difficulties in response inhibition may only be reliably observed in more chronic and severe DE and ED presentations., (© 2024 The Authors. Developmental Psychobiology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

The ubiquity of energy-dense, processed foods has been implicated as a salient feature of the modern 'obesogenic' environment. Cognitive strategies, such as response inhibition training, have been demonstrated to reduce the hedonic value of such foods in previous studies. However, this effect has generally been inconsistent or heterogenous, depending on the outcome measure, characteristics of the sample, and the specificity of food stimuli. Characterising the extent of generalised effects may help define the application of this type of intervention in natural settings. A repeated-measures, proof-of-concept study, using mobile app-based response inhibition training (RIT) versus a control app-based activity (N = 25), was undertaken to establish the valid application of a food reward measure to assess intervention efficacy. Liking (i.e., affect) and wanting (i.e., motivation) for food stimuli categorised by energy density were taken concurrently pre- and post-training. A statistically significant reduction in explicit liking, but not implicit wanting, for foods irrespective of their energy density was observed during the RIT app-based training session relative to the control (p = .041, ηp 2  = .16). However, effect sizes associated with devaluation of energy-dense relative to low calorie food stimuli, although non-significant, were higher when measured as implicitly wanting (p = .098, ηp 2  = .11) than explicit liking (p = .756, ηp 2  = .00). Trends in explicit stimulus evaluations were empirically discordant from implicit evaluations for low calorie foods in particular. Additional research is needed to investigate whether these trends are reproducible with larger samples, trained and novel food stimuli in outcome measures, and more comprehensive training protocols., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

This study investigated the effects of low doses of alcohol, which are acceptable for driving a car, on inhibitory control and neural processing using the stop-signal task (SST) in 17 healthy right-handed social drinkers. The study employed simultaneous functional magnetic resonance imaging and electromyography (EMG) recordings to assess behavioral and neural responses under conditions of low-dose alcohol (breath-alcohol concentration of 0.15 mg/L) and placebo. The results demonstrated that even a small amount of alcohol consumption prolonged Go reaction times in the SST and modified stopping behavior, as evidenced by a decrease in the frequency and magnitude of partial response EMG that did not result in button pressing during successful inhibitory control. Furthermore, alcohol intake enhanced neural activity during failed inhibitory responses in the right inferior frontal cortex, suggesting its potential role in behavioral adaptation following stop-signal failure. These findings suggest that even low levels of alcohol consumption within legal driving limits can greatly impact both the cognitive performance and brain activity involved in inhibiting responses. This research provides important evidence on the neurobehavioral effects of low-dose alcohol consumption, with implications for understanding the biological basis of impaired motor control and decision-making and potentially informing legal guidelines on alcohol consumption., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Background: Response inhibition - or the ability to withhold a suboptimal response - relies on the efficacy of fronto-striatal networks, and is impaired in neuropsychiatric disorders including addiction. Cortical paired associative stimulation (cPAS) is a form of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) which can strengthen neuronal connections via spike-timing-dependent plasticity mechanisms. Here, we used cPAS targeting the fronto-striatal inhibitory network to modulate performance on a response inhibition measure in chronic alcohol use., Methods: Fifty-five participants (20 patients with a formal alcohol use disorder (AUD) diagnosis (26-74 years, 6[30%] females) and 20 matched healthy controls (HCs) (27-73 years, 6[30%] females) within a larger sample of 35 HCs (23-84 years, 11[31.4%] females) underwent two randomized sessions of cPAS 1-week apart: right inferior frontal cortex stimulation preceding right presupplementary motor area stimulation by either 4 ms (excitation condition) or 100 ms (control condition), and were subsequently administered the Stop Signal Task (SST) in both sessions., Results: HCs showed decreased stop signal reaction time in the excitation condition (t(19) = -3.01, p = 0.007, [CIs]:-35.6 to -6.42); this facilitatory effect was not observed for AUD (F(1,31) = 9.57, p = 0.004, CIs: -68.64 to -14.11). Individually, rates of SST improvement were substantially higher for healthy (72%) relative to AUD (13.6%) groups (OR: 2.33, p = 0.006, CIs:-3.34 to -0.55)., Conclusion: In line with previous findings, cPAS improved response inhibition in healthy adults by strengthening the fronto-striatal network through putative long-term potentiation-like plasticity mechanisms. Furthermore, we identified a possible marker of impaired cortical excitability, and, thus, diminished capacity for cPAS-induced neuroplasticity in AUD with direct implications to a disorder-relevant cognitive process.

Objective: To examine cold (based on logical reasoning) versus hot (having emotional components) executive function processes in groups with high individual schizotypal traits., Method: Two-hundred and forty-seven participants were administered the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire and were allocated into schizotypal (cognitive-perceptual, paranoid, negative, disorganized) or control groups according to pre-specified criteria. Participants were also administered a battery of tasks examining working memory, complex selective attention, response inhibition, decision-making and fluid intelligence and their affective counterparts. The outcome measures of each task were reduced to one composite variable thus formulating five cold and five hot cognitive domains. Between-group differences in the cognitive domains were examined with repeated measures analyses of covariance., Results: For working memory, the control and the cognitive-perceptual groups outperformed negative schizotypes, while for affective working memory controls outperformed the disorganized group. Controls also scored higher compared with the disorganized group in complex selective attention, while both the control and the cognitive-perceptual groups outperformed negative schizotypes in complex affective selective attention. Negative schizotypes also had striking difficulties in response inhibition, as they scored lower compared with all other groups. Despite the lack of differences in fluid intelligence, controls scored higher compared with all schizotypal groups (except from cognitive-perceptual schizotypes) in emotional intelligence; the latter group reported higher emotional intelligence compared with negative schizotypes., Conclusion: Results indicate that there is no categorical association between the different schizotypal dimensions with solely cold or hot executive function processes and support impoverished emotional intelligence as a core feature of schizotypy.

Background: Some evidence indicates that adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may have balance impairments. This study examined the associations between moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), response inhibition (RI), and static balance in this population while off and on psychostimulant medication (PS). Methods: Participants ( n = 40; 30 females; M age = 29.0; SD = 6.3 years) wore an ActiGraph GT9X-link around their waist to estimate MVPA levels (minutes/day). To assess RI, participants completed the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) subtests Trail-Making Test (TMT) and Color-Word Interference Test (CWIT). To evaluate static balance, participants completed postural sway area (cm 2 ) assessments in four conditions: feet-apart eyes-open (FAEO), feet-apart eyes-closed (FAEC), feet-together eyes-open (FTEO), and feet-together eyes-closed (FTEC). Participants also completed the single-leg standing tests (seconds) with eyes open (SLEO) and with eyes closed (SLEC). Results: When off medication, MVPA significantly predicted SLEC ( β = 0.30; p = 0.017). MVPA and TMT significantly predicted FTEO, explaining ~19% of the variance in FTEO; both MVPA and TMT were significant predictors ( β = -0.33, p = 0.027 and β = -0.31, p = 0.039, respectively). When on medication, TMT significantly predicted FAEC ( β = 0.17; p = 0.047). Conclusions: MVPA and RI may be effective parameters in predicting static balance in adults with ADHD when off medication only.

Evidence suggests that speech and limb movement inhibition are subserved by common neural mechanisms, particularly within the right prefrontal cortex. In a recent study, we found that cathodal stimulation of right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) differentially modulated P3 event-related potentials for speech versus limb inhibition. In the present study, we further analyzed these data to examine the effects of cathodal high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) over rDLPFC on frontal theta - an oscillatory marker of cognitive control - in response to speech and limb inhibition, during a Go/No-Go task in 21 neurotypical adults. Electroencephalography data demonstrated that both speech and limb No-Go elicited prominent theta activity over right prefrontal electrodes, with stronger activity for speech compared to limb. Moreover, we found that cathodal stimulation significantly increased theta power over right prefrontal electrodes for speech versus limb No-Go. Source analysis revealed that cathodal, but not sham, stimulation increased theta activity within rDLPFC and bilateral premotor cortex for speech No-Go compared to limb movement inhibition. These findings complement our previous report and suggest (1) right prefrontal theta activity is an amodal oscillatory mechanism supporting speech and limb inhibition, (2) larger theta activity in prefrontal electrodes for speech versus limb following cathodal stimulation may reflect allocation of additional neural resources for a more complex motor task, such as speech compared to limb movement. These findings have translational implications for conditions such as Parkinson's disease, wherein both speech and limb movement are impaired., (© 2024 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Background: It is not clear whether and how insomnia disorder (ID) impairs response inhibition ability. Fronto-striatal functional connectivity (FC) plays a critical role in response inhibition and is found be abnormal in patients with ID. In this study, we examined whether insomnia symptoms impair response inhibition in a large non-clinical sample and whether impaired response inhibition is related to abnormal fronto-striatal FC., Methods: One hundred and fifteen young ID patients and 160 age and sex-matched healthy controls (HC) underwent resting-state functional magnetic response imaging scans and performed the stop-signal task (SST). Performance of SST, Gray Matter Volumes (GMVs), and connections of brain regions related to fronto-striatal circuits was compared between groups. Further examined the association between response inhibition impairment and fronto-striatal FC., Results: The behavioral results showed that patients with ID had significantly longer stop-signal reaction time (SSRT) compared with the HC, reflecting the impaired response inhibition among IDs. Brain imaging results showed IDs had decreased GMVs of the Right Superior Frontal (SFG) and left Supplementary Motor area (SMA). Seed-based FC results showed that compared to HC, the ID showed decreased FC between left SMA and left Paracentral lobule, left SMA and right SMA, and right SFG and right Orbital Middle Frontal gyrus, and increased FC between right SFG and right putamen. Meanwhile, the FC between right SFG and putamen was positively correlated with SSRT in IDs., Conclusions: The current study found significantly impaired response inhibition among ID and this impairment may be related to abnormal fronto-striatal FC in ID., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Neuromodulation with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is an increasingly popular research tool to experimentally manipulate cortical areas and probe their causal involvements in behavior, but its replicability and regional specificity are not clear. This registered report investigated cathodal tDCS effects on spatial-numerical associations (i.e., the SNARC effect), the numerical distance effect (NDE), and inhibitory control (i.e., stop-signal reaction time; SSRT). Healthy adults (N = 160) were randomly assigned to one of five groups to receive sham tDCS or 1 mA cathodal tDCS to one of four stimulation sites (left/right prefrontal cortex [PFC], left/right posterior parietal cortex) with extracephalic return. We replicated that cathodal tDCS over the left PFC reduced the SNARC effect compared to sham tDCS and to tDCS over the left parietal cortex. However, neither NDE nor SSRT were modulated in the main analyses. Post hoc contrasts and exploratory analyses showed that cathodal tDCS over the right PFC had a time-dependent effect by delayed practice-related improvements in SSRT. Math anxiety moderated changes in the NDE in the groups receiving tDCS to the right parietal cortex. With few exceptions, the replicability and regional specificity of tDCS effects on behavior were weak and partially moderated by individual differences. Future research needs to characterize the parameter settings for effective neuromodulation., (© 2024 The Authors. Journal of Neuroscience Research published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Individuals with depressive disorders have deficits in inhibitory control and exhibit symptoms of impaired cognitive and emotional functioning. Individuals with subsyndromal depression are intermediate between the healthy group and clinically diagnosed patients with depressive disorders, and studying the characteristics of their inhibitory control functioning can help to investigate the mechanisms underlying the development of depressive disorders. Using two classical paradigms of inhibitory control, Flanker and Go/NoGo, the present study explored the differences in inhibitory control between individuals with subsyndromal depression and healthy individuals from the perspectives of both response inhibition and interference control. Behavioral results showed that both groups did not differ in response time and accuracy; in terms of event-related potentials, individuals with subsyndromal depression presented smaller N2 amplitudes as well as larger P3 amplitudes in the NoGo condition of the Go/NoGo paradigm; and smaller N2 amplitudes in the incongruent condition of the Flanker paradigm. Moreover, the depression-prone group showed lower theta power compared to the healthy group in the NoGo condition of the NoGo paradigm and the incongruent condition of the Flanker paradigm. The present study reveals that the depression-prone group may have a compensatory mechanism in the response inhibition, which is mainly manifested as early under-activation as well as late over-activation., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Impaired response inhibition is commonly present in individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and their unaffected relatives, suggesting impaired response inhibition as a candidate endophenotype in ADHD. Therefore, we explored whether behavioral and neural correlates of response inhibition are related to polygenic risk scores for ADHD (PRS-ADHD). We obtained functional magnetic resonance imaging of neural activity and behavioral measures during a stop-signal task in the NeuroIMAGE cohort, where inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity symptoms were assessed with the Conners Parent Rating Scales. Our sample consisted of 178 ADHD cases, 103 unaffected siblings, and 173 controls (total N = 454; 8-29 years), for whom genome-wide genotyping was available. PRS-ADHD was constructed using the PRSice-2 software. We found PRS-ADHD to be associated with ADHD symptom severity, a slower and more variable response to Go-stimuli, and altered brain activation during response inhibition in several regions of the bilateral fronto-striatal network. Mean reaction time and intra-individual reaction time variability mediated the association of PRS-ADHD with ADHD symptoms (total, inattention, hyperactivity-impulsivity), and activity in the left temporal pole and anterior parahippocampal gyrus during failed inhibition mediated the relationship of PRS-ADHD with hyperactivity-impulsivity. Our findings indicate that PRS-ADHD are related to ADHD severity on a spectrum of clinical, sub-threshold, and normal levels; more importantly, we show a shared genetic etiology of ADHD and behavioral and neural correlates of response inhibition. Given the modest sample size of our study, future studies with higher power are warranted to explore mediation effects, suggesting that genetic liability to ADHD may adversely affect attention regulation on the behavioral level and point to a possible response inhibition-related mechanistic pathway from PRS-ADHD to hyperactivity-impulsivity., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Impairments in cognitive processes and their associations with dimensional measures of inattention, hyperactivity-impulsivity and anxiety were examined in children at risk of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Children referred by teachers for exhibiting ADHD-type problems ( n  = 116; 43 meeting full diagnostic criteria for ADHD; 4-8 years) completed computerized tasks measuring episodic memory, response inhibition, visuomotor control and sustained attention, while parents were interviewed (DAWBA) to assess ADHD and anxiety symptoms. Of the 116 children assessed, 72% exhibited impaired cognitive processes; 47% had impaired visuomotor control, 37% impaired response inhibition, and 35% had impaired episodic memory. Correlational and hierarchical regression analyses using our final analytic sample (i.e., children who completed all cognitive tasks and a vocabulary assessment, n  = 114) showed that poorer task performance and greater within-subject variability were significantly associated with more severe inattention symptoms but not with hyperactivity-impulsivity severity. Symptoms of separation anxiety, which were reported in over half of the sample, moderated associations between inattention and episodic memory, and between inattention and inhibition. Only children without separation anxiety showed significant correlations between ADHD symptoms and poor performance. However, separation anxiety had no moderating effect on associations between inattention and visuomotor control or sustaining attention. Children exhibiting signs of ADHD show impairments across a range of cognitive tasks. Further research to improve our understanding of these processes may be useful in the development of early interventions. Our results suggest that separation anxiety should be taken into account when considering interventions to address emerging neuropsychological deficits associated with this disorder.

Backward crosstalk effects (BCE) are observed in dual-task studies when characteristics of Task 2 influence Task 1 performance. When Task 2 is a go/no-go task, responses in Task 1 are slower when Task 2 is a no-go as compared to a go trial. This no-go BCE has been argued to be due to response inhibition spilling over from Task 2 to Task 1. Growing evidence shows that response inhibition elicits negative affect leading to affective devaluation of associated stimuli. We tested for a functional role of the negative affective consequence of response inhibition in the no-go BCE by investigating its interaction with affective processing in Task 1. In four experiments, Task 1 was a valence categorization task, and Task 2 a go/no-go task. In all experiments, the no-go BCE strongly depended on affective processing in Task 1. While this modulation could be attributed to an affective (mis)match between stimulus features in both tasks in Experiments 1 and 2, Experiments 3 and 4 provided evidence for an affective (mis)match between stimulus valence in Task 1 and affective consequences of Task 2 response inhibition. Results are discussed in the context of current theories of no-go BCE in dual tasks.

Background: Deficits in response inhibition are associated with numerous psychiatric disorders. Previous studies have revealed the crucial role of the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG), pre-supplementary motor area (preSMA), and beta activity in these brain regions in response inhibition. Multi-channel transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) has garnered significant attention for its ability to modulate neural oscillations in brain networks. In this study, we employed multi-channel tACS targeting rIFG-preSMA network to investigate its impact on response inhibition in healthy adults., Methods: In Experiment 1, 70 healthy participants were randomly assigned to receive 20 Hz in-phase, anti-phase, or sham stimulation over rIFG-preSMA network. Response inhibition was assessed using the stop-signal task during and after stimulation, and impulsiveness was measured via the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. Additionally, 25 participants received stimulation at the left supraorbital area to account for potential effects of the "return" electrode. Experiment 2, consisting of 25 participants, was conducted to validate the primary findings of Experiment 1, including both in-phase and sham stimulation conditions, based on prior estimations derived from the results of Experiment 1., Results: In Experiment 1, we found that in-phase stimulation significantly improved response inhibition compared with sham stimulation, whereas anti-phase stimulation did not. These findings were consistently replicated in Experiment 2. We also conducted an exploratory analysis of the multi-channel tACS impact, revealing that its effects primarily emerged during the post-stimulation phase. Furthermore, individuals with higher baseline attentional impulsiveness showed greater improvements in the in-phase stimulation group., Conclusions: These results demonstrate that in-phase beta-tACS over rIFG-preSMA network can effectively improve response inhibition in healthy adults and provides a new potential treatment for patients with deficits in response inhibition., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: The present study investigated neural mechanisms for suppressing a highly automatic balance recovery step. Response inhibition has typically been researched using focal hand reaction tasks performed by seated participants, and this has revealed a neural stopping network including the Inferior Frontal Gyrus (IFG). It is unclear if the same neural networks contribute to suppressing an unwanted balance reaction., Research Question: Is there greater IFG activation when suppressing an automatic balance recovery step?, Methods: Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to measure brain activity in 21 young adults as they performed a balance recovery task that demanded rapid step suppression following postural perturbation. The hypothesis was that the IFG would show heightened activity when suppressing an automatic balance recovery step. A lean and-release system was used to impose temporally unpredictable forward perturbations by releasing participants from a supported forward lean. For most trials (80%), participants were told to recover balance by quickly stepping forward (STEP). However, on 20% of trials at random, a high-pitch tone was played immediately after postural perturbation signaling participants to suppress a step and fully relax into a catch harness (STOP). This allowed us to target the ability to cancel an already initiated step in a balance recovery context. Average oxygenated hemoglobin changes were contrasted between STEP and STOP trials, 1-6 s post perturbation., Results: The results showed a greater bilateral prefrontal response during STOP trials, supporting the idea that executive brain networks are active when suppressing a balance recovery step., Significance: Our study demonstrates one way in which higher brain processes may help us prevent falls in complex environments where behavioral flexibility is necessary. This study also presents a novel method for assessing response inhibition in an upright postural context where rapid stepping reactions are required., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None to declare., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A growing body of work has found that a mismatch between early and recent life stress, more than a cumulative influence of stress, contributes to detrimental stress-related health outcomes. To date, however, no work has examined how such a mismatch might relate to stress-related cognitive outcomes. We addressed this gap in the current study by assessing participants' ( N  = 154, M = 18.7, 104 female) early and recent life stress using the same inventory, and subsequently assessing their inhibitory control in a hybrid stop-signal/flanker task. Surprisingly, we found that a greater degree of stressor mismatch was associated with better response inhibition (i.e. smaller stop-signal reaction time) across a number of analytic approaches. Cognitive inhibition (i.e. the flanker interference effect) was not associated with stressor mismatch. These results thus show that a greater degree of mismatch between early and recent life stress is related to response inhibition in the same way as acute stress affects response inhibition, suggesting that response inhibition may be an important cognitive process for navigating both acute stress and general environmental conditions that do not match the conditions in which expected stress occurrence was established.age = 18.7, 104 female) early and recent life stress using the same inventory, and subsequently assessing their inhibitory control in a hybrid stop-signal/flanker task. Surprisingly, we found that a greater degree of stressor mismatch was associated with better response inhibition (i.e. smaller stop-signal reaction time) across a number of analytic approaches. Cognitive inhibition (i.e. the flanker interference effect) was not associated with stressor mismatch. These results thus show that a greater degree of mismatch between early and recent life stress is related to response inhibition in the same way as acute stress affects response inhibition, suggesting that response inhibition may be an important cognitive process for navigating both acute stress and general environmental conditions that do not match the conditions in which expected stress occurrence was established.

Rationale: Substance use disorders (SUDs) rank among the most severely debilitating psychiatric conditions. Among others, decreased response inhibition capacities could make it more difficult for patients to abstain from drug use and maintain abstinence. However, meta-analyses on the neural basis of response inhibition in SUDs yielded conflicting results., Objective: In this study, we revisited the neuroimaging research field and summarized the existing fMRI literature on overt response inhibition (Go/NoGo and stop-signal paradigms) across different SUDs., Methods: We performed a systematic literature review and an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis to investigate the actual convergence of functional deviations observed in SUD samples. Results were further supplied by consecutive robustness measures and a post-hoc random-effects meta-analysis of behavioural data., Results: We identified k = 21 eligible studies for our analysis. The ALE analysis indicated a significant cluster of convergence with its statistical peak in the right anterior insula. Consecutive analyses, however, indicated this result was not robust and susceptible towards publication bias. Additionally, a post-hoc random effects meta-analysis of the behavioural parameters of Go/NoGo and stop-signal paradigms reported by the included studies revealed no significant differences in task performance comparing SUD samples and controls., Conclusion: We discuss that the role of task-based response inhibition may require some refinement as an overarching marker for SUD pathology. Finally, we give a few prospects for future research that should be further explored in this context., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Objectives: The developmental absence (agenesis) of the corpus callosum (AgCC) is a congenital brain malformation associated with risk for a range of neuropsychological difficulties. Inhibitory control outcomes, including interference control and response inhibition, in children with AgCC are unclear. This study examined interference control and response inhibition: 1) in children with AgCC compared with typically developing (TD) children, 2) in children with different anatomical features of AgCC (complete vs. partial, isolated vs. complex), and 3) associations with white matter volume and microstructure of the anterior (AC) and posterior commissures (PC) and any remnant corpus callosum (CC)., Methods: Participants were 27 children with AgCC and 32 TD children 8-16 years who completed inhibitory control assessments and brain MRI to define AgCC anatomical features and measure white matter volume and microstructure., Results: The AgCC cohort had poorer performance and higher rates of below average performance on inhibitory control measures than TD children. Children with complex AgCC had poorer response inhibition performance than children with isolated AgCC. While not statistically significant, there were select medium to large effect sizes for better inhibitory control associated with greater volume and microstructure of the AC and PC, and with reduced volume and microstructure of the remnant CC in partial AgCC., Conclusions: This study provides evidence of inhibitory control difficulties in children with AgCC. While the sample was small, the study found preliminary evidence that the AC ( f 2 =.18) and PC ( f 2 =.30) may play a compensatory role for inhibitory control outcomes in the absence of the CC.

This study examined the associations between excessive alcohol intake during adolescence and neurocognitive functioning in young adulthood and whether these relations varied by sex. Participants were working-class Chilean adolescents ( N = 692; M age 21.2 years). Illicit substance users were excluded a priori and other substance use was controlled. When males and females were considered simultaneously, no main effects of intoxication or bingeing were found. However, several sex-specific effects emerged for intoxication, such that more frequent intoxication was associated with poorer visual memory, attention, processing speed, response inhibition, and cognitive flexibility in females, while frequent intoxication related to better attention and processing speed in males. In general, effect sizes were small. No relations emerged for verbal memory, working memory, or spatial learning. Possible factors that contribute to divergent sex effects are discussed.M age 21.2 years). Illicit substance users were excluded a priori and other substance use was controlled. When males and females were considered simultaneously, no main effects of intoxication or bingeing were found. However, several sex-specific effects emerged for intoxication, such that more frequent intoxication was associated with poorer visual memory, attention, processing speed, response inhibition, and cognitive flexibility in females, while frequent intoxication related to better attention and processing speed in males. In general, effect sizes were small. No relations emerged for verbal memory, working memory, or spatial learning. Possible factors that contribute to divergent sex effects are discussed., Competing Interests: We have no known conflict of interest to disclose.

Dynamic changes in neurodevelopment and cognitive functioning occur during adolescence, including a switch from reactive to more proactive forms of cognitive control, including response inhibition. Pediatric mild traumatic brain injury (pmTBI) affects these cognitions immediately post-injury, but the role of vascular versus neural injury in cognitive dysfunction remains debated. This study consecutively recruited 214 sub-acute pmTBI (8-18 years) and age/sex-matched healthy controls (HC; N = 186), with high retention rates (>80%) at four months post-injury. Multimodal imaging (functional MRI during response inhibition, cerebral blood flow and cerebrovascular reactivity) assessed for pathologies within the neurovascular unit. Patients exhibited increased errors of commission and hypoactivation of motor circuitry during processing of probes. Evidence of increased/delayed cerebrovascular reactivity within motor circuitry during hypercapnia was present along with normal perfusion. Neither age-at-injury nor post-concussive symptom load were strongly associated with imaging abnormalities. Collectively, mild cognitive impairments and clinical symptoms may continue up to four months post-injury. Prolonged dysfunction within the neurovascular unit was observed during proactive response inhibition, with preliminary evidence that neural and pure vascular trauma are statistically independent. These findings suggest pmTBI is characterized by multifaceted pathologies during the sub-acute injury stage that persist several months post-injury., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Dr. Meier receives compensation as a member of the Clinical and Scientific Advisory Board for Quadrant Biosciences Inc. No other authors report any competing interests.