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False memories during testimony are an enormous challenge for criminal trials. Exposure to post-event misinformation can lead to inadvertent creation of false memories, known as the misinformation effect. We investigated anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on the left inferior parietal lobe (IPL) during recall testing to enhance accurate recall while addressing the misinformation effect. Participants (N = 60) watched a television series depicting a fictional terrorist attack, then received an audio recording with misinformation, consistent information, and control information. During cued recall testing, participants received anodal or sham tDCS. Results revealed a robust misinformation effect in both groups, with participants falsely recalling on average 26.6% of the misinformed items. Bayesian statistics indicated substantial evidence in favour of the null hypothesis that there was no difference between groups in the misinformation effect. Regarding correct recall however, the anodal group exhibited significantly improved recall for items from the original video. Together, these results demonstrate that anodal tDCS of the left IPL enhances correct recall of the episodes from the original event without affecting false recall of misinformation. The findings support the IPL's role in recollection and source attribution of episodic memories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self‐prioritization is a very influential modulator of human information processing. Still, little is known about the time‐frequency dynamics of the self‐prioritization network. In this EEG study, we used the familiarity‐confound free matching task to investigate the spectral dynamics of self‐prioritization and their underlying cognitive functions in a drift‐diffusion model. Participants (N = 40) repeatedly associated arbitrary geometric shapes with either "the self" or "a stranger." Behavioral results demonstrated prominent self‐prioritization effects (SPEs) in reaction time and accuracy. Remarkably, EEG cluster analysis also revealed two significant SPEs, one in delta/theta power (2–7 Hz) and one in beta power (19–29 Hz). Drift‐diffusion modeling indicated that beta activity was associated with evidence accumulation, whereas delta/theta activity was associated with response selection. The decreased beta suppression of the SPE might indicate more efficient sensorimotor processing of self‐associated stimulus–response features, whereas the increased delta/theta SPE might refer to the facilitated retrieval of self‐relevant features across a widely distributed associative self‐network. These novel oscillatory biomarkers of self‐prioritization indicate their function as an associative glue for the self‐concept. This EEG study reports time‐frequency markers of self‐prioritization in a familiarity‐confound reduced matching task, in which arbitrary geometric shapes were associated with the self or a stranger. The self‐prioritization effect was evident in behavioral indices and in two EEG clusters in delta/theta power and beta power. Going beyond previous work, these EEG clusters were linked to evidence accumulation and response caution in the drift‐diffusion model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although functional neurological movement disorders (FMD) are characterized by motor symptoms, sensory processing has also been shown to be disturbed. However, how the integration of perception and motor processes, essential for the control of goal‐directed behavior, is altered in patients with FMD is less clear. A detailed investigation of these processes is crucial to foster a better understanding of the pathophysiology of FMD and can systematically be achieved in the framework of the theory of event coding (TEC). Objective: The aim was to investigate perception–action integration processes on a behavioral and neurophysiological level in patients with FMD. Methods: A total of 21 patients and 21 controls were investigated with a TEC‐related task, including concomitant electroencephalogram (EEG) recording. We focused on EEG correlates established to reflect perception–action integration processes. Temporal decomposition allowed to distinguish between EEG codes reflecting sensory (S‐cluster), motor (R‐cluster), and integrated sensory–motor processing (C‐cluster). We also applied source localization analyses. Results: Behaviorally, patients revealed stronger binding between perception and action, as evidenced by difficulties in reconfiguring previously established stimulus–response associations. Such hyperbinding was paralleled by a modulation of neuronal activity clusters, including reduced C‐cluster modulations of the inferior parietal cortex and altered R‐cluster modulations in the inferior frontal gyrus. Correlations of these modulations with symptom severity were also evident. Conclusions: Our study shows that FMD is characterized by altered integration of sensory information with motor processes. Relations between clinical severity and both behavioral performance and neurophysiological abnormalities indicate that perception–action integration processes are central and a promising concept for the understanding of FMD. © 2023 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conflict monitoring theory postulates that conflict detection is initiated in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), indexed by midfrontal theta oscillations in the electroencephalogram (EEG). Recent research suggested that distractor detection (in the Eriksen flanker task) can be initiated relatively early by attentional control processes in the occipital lobe. Whether attentional control is also involved in the detection of stimulus–response overlapping conflict in the Stroop task is yet unclear. In the present study, we analyzed EEG time‐frequency data (N = 47) to investigate the contribution of early attentional control processes to the detection of response conflict and semantic conflict in a lateralized version of the color‐word Stroop task. The behavioral results showed significant conflict effects in response times (RT). The EEG results showed a prominent midfrontal response conflict effect in total theta power (4–8 Hz). Importantly, detection of response conflict and semantic conflict was observed in posterior delta/theta power (2–8 Hz), which was lateralized depending on the presentation side of the irrelevant Stroop words. In explorative regression analysis, both the midfrontal and the posterior response conflict effects predicted the size of response conflict errors. These results suggest that attentional control processes in posterior areas contribute to the initiation of response‐conflict detection in the Stroop task. The findings are consistent with the idea of a representational link between stimulus and response features, known as the common coding principle. This study provides evidence for a conflict detection signal in EEG delta/theta power in a lateralized version of the Stroop task. The posterior signal was associated to response conflict and to semantic conflict. This finding challenges the conflict monitoring account, which postulates that conflict detection is initiated in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), as reflected by midfrontal theta power increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Action planning can be construed as the temporary binding of action features to form a representation known as an action file. This file is distinct from other possible, but currently not required actions of the behavioral repertoire. To further this action file approach, we investigated what happens with an initially planned action, which however, is discarded before execution. In two experiments we found consistent evidence for a quick unbinding of action features with discarding. Other possible mechanisms that action discarding might invoke, be it the paradox strengthening of a discarded action plan, the selective suppression of the otherwise intact plan, or the global suppression of all subsequent action, were not or at least less consistently supported. These findings provide a novel perspective on inhibitory action control, which we discuss with respect to its applications to other instances of such inhibitory control as studied in multitasking, stop-signal, directed forgetting, or response-reprogramming paradigms. Public Significance Statement: Humans are capable of planning actions for future execution instead of directly carrying them out. What we do not exactly know is what happens if people do not follow through with such a plan. We found that refraining from carrying out an initially planned action means to disconnect the mental pieces which the plan consisted of. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perception and action rely on integrating or binding different features of stimuli and responses. Such bindings are short-lived, but they can be retrieved for a limited amount of time if any of their features is reactivated. This is particularly true for stimulus–response bindings, allowing for flexible recycling of previous action plans. A relation to learning of stimulus–response associations suggests itself, and previous accounts have proposed binding as an initial step of forging associations in long-term memory. The evidence for this claim is surprisingly mixed, however. Here we propose a framework that explains previous failures to detect meaningful relations of binding and learning by highlighting the joint contribution of three variables: (a) decay, (b) the number of repetitions, and (c) the time elapsing between repetitions. Accounting for the interplay of these variables provides a promising blueprint for innovative experimental designs that bridge the gap between immediate bindings on the one hand and lasting associations in memory on the other hand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forward testing effect is an indirect benefit of retrieval practice. It refers to the finding that retrieval practice of previously studied information enhances learning and retention of subsequently studied other information in episodic memory tasks. Here, two experiments were conducted that investigated whether retrieval practice influences participants' performance in other tasks, i.e., arithmetic tasks. Participants studied three lists of words in anticipation of a final recall test. In the testing condition, participants were immediately tested on lists 1 and 2 after study of each list, whereas in the restudy condition, they restudied lists 1 and 2 after initial study. Before and after study of list 3, participants did an arithmetic task. Finally, participants were tested on list 3, list 2, and list 1. Different arithmetic tasks were used in the two experiments. Participants did a modular arithmetic task in Experiment 1a and a single-digit multiplication task in Experiment 1b. The results of both experiments showed a forward testing effect with interim testing of lists 1 and 2 enhancing list 3 recall in the list 3 recall test, but no effects of recall testing of lists 1 and 2 for participants' performance in the arithmetic tasks. The findings are discussed with respect to cognitive load theory and current theories of the forward testing effect., Competing Interests: The authors have no competing interests to declare., (Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s).)