Enhanced reactive cognitive control through virtual reality EEG neurofeedback
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1
Birkbeck College, Department of Psychological Sciences, United Kingdom
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2
UCL, Psychology and language sciences, United Kingdom
A dominant theory in the literature on cognitive control assumes that the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) monitors ongoing cognitive conflict to keep the prefrontal cortex focused on the task set. A benchmark finding that is used to tout the predictive utility of the theory is the so-called conflict-adaptation (CA) or Gratton effect aka the less theory-laden congruency-sequence effect. We hypothesised that the conflict-control loop and therefore the CA effect could be enhanced by upregulating the sensitivity of the prefrontal cortex to ACC input (see figure 1). The recent literature on alpha band frequency suggests that a cortical area that exhibits alpha is in a state that is conducive for cortico-cortical communication mediated at the superficial laminar layers. In addition, a recent study showed a beneficial effect of using a virtual reality feedback system (the CAVE), but results of its efficacy are still questionable. Here we use the Oculus Rift combined with EEG neurofeedback in which participants were instructed to levitate a vase or a square in a 3D or 2D environment, respectively, by enhancing frontal alpha. A multilevel analysis indicates that neurofeedback improves conflict adaptation and that modality (2D vs 3D) has no effect on the association, but 3D speeds up the learning. A statistical methodology is demonstrated that is not biased towards null-effects due to nonresponders.
Keywords:
Neurofeedback,
EEG,
Alpha Rhythm,
virtual reality,
Stroop task
Conference:
SAN2016 Meeting, Corfu, Greece, 6 Oct - 9 Oct, 2016.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation in SAN2016 Conference
Topic:
Posters
Citation:
Davelaar
EJ and
Berger
A
(2016). Enhanced reactive cognitive control through virtual reality EEG neurofeedback.
Conference Abstract:
SAN2016 Meeting.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2016.220.00045
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Received:
01 Aug 2016;
Published Online:
01 Aug 2016.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Eddy J Davelaar, Birkbeck College, Department of Psychological Sciences, London, WC1E7HX, United Kingdom, frontierscognitivescience.sce@gmail.com