Poster No:
1070
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Roger McIntosh1, Danielle Pairot1, Maria DiBello1, Ramanamurthy Mylavarapu1, Patrick Ganzer1
Institutions:
1University of Miami, Miami, FL
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
According to the conflict monitoring model of cognitive control, distracter interference tasks such as the multi-source interference task (MSIT) are cognitively taxing and can result in increases levels of psychophysiological stress. Participants not only report subjective arousal in response to the tasks, but also experience decreases in cognitive control, further suggesting that executive and autonomic control help to shape the magnitude of mental stress during cognitive interference tasks. A neurovisceral integration model has been used to probe regions integral for regulation of mental stress. The current study sought to determine whether the magnitude of cognitive interference during the MSIT can be predicted by the change in heart rate variability between incongruent and congruent conditions, and whether this effect is moderated by executive functioning indexed by the Delis Kaplan Executive Functioning Scale (DKEFS).
Methods:
Ninety-three healthy adults (mean age 32.4 7.6 years) 59.6% female were selected from the Nathan Kline Institute based upon completion of an MSIT adopted for the MR environment which consisted of eight 50-second blocks of congruent and incongruent trials. Standard pre-processing and 1st level analyses were conducted using SPM 12 by specifying brain regions showing the main task effect (incongruent > congruent). Individual whole-brain contrast maps were then analyzed using a one-sample t-test with results thresholded at p < 0.05 (whole-brain family-wise error (FWE) corrected, cluster size >20). Supra-threshold regions were extracted from the whole brain maps. In this study Kubios HRV Premium was used to determine the HRV indices through the pre-process and analysis procedures of the measured photoplethysmograph (PPG) signal collected during the MR scan and used to derive the standard deviation of the normal-to-normal interval (SDNN) and the Root mean square of the successive differences (RMSSD). Decreases in these values reflect an increase in the stress level and a decrease in parasympathetic nerve activity. We tested Pearson correlations between the supra-threshold regions showing significant differences between the incongruent and congruent trials and both indices of HRV. To determine whether executive function moderated the association between HRV and BOLD response to conflict resolution, we tested separate regression models for the supra-threshold regions. All models controlled for gender and vascular age.
Results:
Supra-threshold activation was found in the dorsal anterior cingulate (dACC) (k = 503 voxels), caudate (k = 145 voxels), and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) (k = 578 voxels) p < .05 FWE-corrected. The contrast in BOLD activity was inversely associated with SDNN, but not RMSSD for the dACC and caudate. The interaction was executive functioning was significant for the caudate suggesting persons a greater inverse relationship between caudate BOLD and SDNN amongst individuals with above-average DKEFS scores. There were no effects or interactions observed for the right DLPFC.
Conclusions:
We conclude that greater BOLD activation to response conflict within regions previously shown to be involved in cognitive interference was associated with a greater decrease in HRV in persons with above average compared to below average executive functioning. Although BOLD activity within the PFC also significantly increased during response conflict and is known to play an important role in the integration of cognitive and affective behavior and the regulation of autonomic and neuroendocrine functions, the contrast in PFC BOLD activity between incongruent and congruent conditions was not related to SDNN. Overall, the results do not completely support a neurovisceral integration model but do implicate the role of executive functioning and cardiovagal control on neural responses to cognitive interference in a community-dwelling cohort of young healthy adults.
Higher Cognitive Functions:
Executive Function, Cognitive Control and Decision Making 2
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
Activation (eg. BOLD task-fMRI) 1
Keywords:
Basal Ganglia
Cognition
Data analysis
FUNCTIONAL MRI
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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Please indicate below if your study was a "resting state" or "task-activation” study.
Task-activation
Healthy subjects only or patients (note that patient studies may also involve healthy subjects):
Healthy subjects
Was this research conducted in the United States?
Yes
Are you Internal Review Board (IRB) certified?
Please note: Failure to have IRB, if applicable will lead to automatic rejection of abstract.
Yes, I have IRB or AUCC approval
Were any human subjects research approved by the relevant Institutional Review Board or ethics panel?
NOTE: Any human subjects studies without IRB approval will be automatically rejected.
Yes
Were any animal research approved by the relevant IACUC or other animal research panel?
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Not applicable
Please indicate which methods were used in your research:
Functional MRI
For human MRI, what field strength scanner do you use?
3.0T
Which processing packages did you use for your study?
SPM
Provide references using APA citation style.
Gianaros, P. J., Sheu, L. K., Uyar, F., Koushik, J., Jennings, J. R., Wager, T. D., ... & Verstynen, T. D. (2017). A brain phenotype for stressor‐evoked blood pressure reactivity. Journal of the American Heart Association, 6(9), e006053.
Smith, R., Thayer, J. F., Khalsa, S. S., & Lane, R. D. (2017). The hierarchical basis of neurovisceral integration. Neuroscience & biobehavioral reviews, 75, 274-296.
Deng, Y., Wang, X., Wang, Y., & Zhou, C. (2018). Neural correlates of interference resolution in the multi-source interference task: a meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging studies. Behavioral and Brain Functions, 14, 1-9.
No