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Poster C166 in Poster Session C - Friday, August 9, 2024, 11:15 am – 1:15 pm, Johnson Ice Rink
Control adaptation through Selective Suppression of Multidimensional Distractors
Davide Gheza1 (), Thea R. Zalabak1, Wouter Kool1; 1Washington University in St Louis
Humans manage multiple conflicting sources of information. However, models of cognitive control assume one source of interference and do not explain how we handle multiple distractors. In our multi-dimensional task-set interference paradigm, individuals manage distraction from three independent dimensions. Experiment 1 suggests that people use prior conflict from each dimension to selectively modulate their gain. A neural network, measuring multivariate conflict as energy within each dimension’s pathway, captures this effect. Representational similarity analyses of human EEG (Experiment 2) confirmed the selective suppression of distractor representations. These results reveal the striking human ability to simultaneously adjust attention to multiple sources of information. Model predictions converge with recent work suggesting that neural conflict signals emerge from the integration of diverse task variables in medial prefrontal cortex.
Keywords: cognitive control neural network model EEG RSA