Reward And Punishment Modulate The Trade Off Between Proactive And Reactive Cognitive Control

The Dual Mechanisms of Control (DMC) theory suggests that cognitive control consists of two modes:proactive control (anticipatory and sustained control during the cue encoding and maintenance periods) and reactive control (control is engaged after rather than before the probe and in a just-in-time manner rather than consistently). Importantly, the 2 modes are associated with both costs and benefits in cognitive performance.There is a tradeoff between these two kinds of control to optimize task performance. Several studies have shown that the reward context is associated with a shift towards a proactive mode of cognitive control..However, it is still unclear how punishment modulate the tradeoff between proactive and reactive control.The present study conducted four experiments to investigate this question by using AX-Continuous Performance Task (AX-CPT), which is a context processing task that permits separate indices of proactive and reactive control.The present study, some reward/punishment-related cues and feedbacks were introduced. Participants perform a AX-CPT task under three different blocked motivational conditions (baseline reward-incentive/penalty-incentive).In AX-CPT task, letters ("A", "B", "X", and "Y") were individually and sequentially displayed on a computer screen. A target response was required only when an "X" probe is preceded by an "A" cue (AX trials).All other probe stimuli (AY, BX, and BY trials) required non-target responses. In studies 1 and 2,We aiming at how real monetary reward/punishment modulate the tradeoff between proactive and reactive control, whether do they have similar or distinct effects oncognitive control. In studie 3 and 4,we used the AX-CPT in combination with multi-channel fNIRS to exploe the temporal dynamics of activation under different conditions within prefrontal cortex (PFC).The results of the behavioral data showed that reward and punishment cues modulated the tradeoff between proactive and reactive control and led to a preference toward proactive control.fNIRS data indicate that the temporal dynamics PFC in baseline fit a proactive control pattern (primarily probe-based deactivation, PFC deactivation is recruited during cognitive tasks demanding), whereas under reward and punishment condition a reactive control pattern were found (primarily cue-based deactivation, PFC deactivation is an increase of attentional mechanisms). These experimentally induced crossover patterns of temporal dynamics provide strong support for dual modes of cognitive contro that can be flexibly shifted within PFC regions, via modulation of neural responses to changing task conditions or behavioral goals.These results suggest that motivation by potential gains and losses similar effects on cognitive control and led to a preference toward proactive control, alse shows similar the temporal dynamics PFC.