ArticleScientific reports2021
Frontal midline theta differentiates separate cognitive control strategies while still generalizing the need for cognitive control.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Age-related cortical mechanisms underlying postural control: a systematic review.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Pooled it
- Task-Specific Personalized Theta tACS Modulates Theta Dynamics in Associative Memory.Brain and behavior · 2026Trial
- Psilocybin-assisted neurofeedback for the improvement of executive functions: a randomized semi-naturalistic-lab feasibility study.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Trial
- Pro-inflammatory markers interact with spontaneous theta oscillations to predict depression among adolescents.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2026Article
- Midfrontal theta power relates to response speeding following frustrative nonreward.NeuroImage · 2026Article
- Neural mechanisms of negative emotionality and cognitive control: The role of frontal midline theta.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Active Ingredients in Digital Cognitive Interventions: Integrating Dismantling Designs With Mechanistic Neuroscience.JMIR mental health · 2026Article
- A Candidate EEG Spectral Index of Internally Oriented Attention: An Exploratory Comparison of Prayer and Relaxation.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Autonomic-salience stability as a candidate Gate for awake low-dose ketamine: a systems neuroscience framework with a clinical anchor.Frontiers in systems neuroscience · 2026Article
- Exploring the differences in neural oscillation mechanisms before and after sleep deprivation.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Brain-Wave Music Enhances Inhibitory Control Performance by Modulating Oscillations in the Motor Cortex and Frontoparietal Network.Neural plasticity · 2026Article
- Neural dynamics of mindfulness training: A longitudinal EEG network analysis of focused attention and open monitoring meditation.Network neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Article
- Meditation-Specific Neural Predictors of State Mindfulness During Eyes Open Meditation.Mindfulness · 2026Article
- Exploring resting EEG correlates of age-related hearing difficulties.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- The theta paradox-delayed reduction of frontal midline theta following downregulation neurofeedback training.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Article
- Resting-State EEG Power and Aperiodic Activity in Individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Cognitively Healthy Controls.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Expanding the spectrum of the "texting rhythm" in EEG.Epileptic disorders : international epilepsy journal with videotape · 2025Article
- Mapping EEG Metrics to Human Affective and Cognitive Models: An Interdisciplinary Scoping Review from a Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Uncertainty, Cognitive Control and Theta-Band Activity: A Relationship That Depends on Metacontrol Requirements.Human brain mapping · 2025Article
- Electrophysiological Signatures of Planned and Unplanned Continuous Movement Termination in Parkinson's Disease.eNeuro · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Cognitive control processes encompass many distinct components, including response inhibition (stopping a prepotent response), proactive control (using prior information to enact control), reactive control (last-minute changing of a prepotent response), and conflict monitoring (choosing between two competing responses). While frontal midline theta activity is theorized to be a general marker of the need for cognitive control, a stringent test of this hypothesis would require a quantitative, within-subject comparison of the neural activation patterns indexing many different cognitive control strategies, an experiment lacking in the current literature. We recorded EEG from 176 participants as they performed tasks that tested inhibitory control (Go/Nogo Task), proactive and reactive control (AX-Continuous Performance Task), and resolving response conflict (Global/Local Task-modified Flanker Task). As activity in the theta (4-8 Hz) frequency band is thought to be a common signature of cognitive control, we assessed frontal midline theta activation underlying each cognitive control strategy. In all strategies, we found higher frontal midline theta power for trials that required more cognitive control (target conditions) versus control conditions. Additionally, reactive control and inhibitory control had higher theta power than proactive control and response conflict, and proactive control had higher theta power than response conflict. Using decoding analyses, we were able to successfully decode control from target trials using classifiers trained exclusively on each of the other strategies, thus firmly demonstrating that theta representations of cognitive control generalize across multiple cognitive control strategies. Our results confirm that frontal midline theta-band activity is a common mechanism for initiating and executing cognitive control, but theta power also differentiates between cognitive control mechanisms. As theta activation reliably differs depending on the cognitive control strategy employed, future work will need to focus on the differential role of theta in differing cognitive control strategies.
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