Trial reportThe international journal of neuropsychopharmacology2024
Catecholaminergic Modulation of Metacontrol Is Reflected by Changes in Aperiodic EEG Activity.
Trial report in The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Neurobiological influences on event perception: the role of catecholamines.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Trial
- Article
- Beyond neural oscillations: Stress-related aperiodic activity and aperiodic-oscillatory spectral covariation.iScience · 2026Article
- Positive affect increases aperiodic brain activity.Psychological research · 2026Article
- The impact of positive and negative affect on aperiodic EEG activity: evidence for a shared neural basis of metacontrol and emotion.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2026Article
- The Evolving ADHD Phenotype in the Externalizing Context.The American journal of psychiatry · 2026Review
- Time-resolved aperiodic dynamics in event segmentation in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.Brain communications · 2026Article
- Analysis of aperiodic activity in obsessive-compulsive disorder and major depression.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The Dynamic Management of Working Memory Is Supported by Aperiodic Neural Activity.Psychophysiology · 2025Article
- Metacontrol-related aperiodic neural activity decreases but strategic adjustment thereof increases from childhood to adulthood.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Catecholaminergic Modulation of Metacontrol Is Reflected in Aperiodic EEG Activity and Predicted by Baseline GABA+ and Glx Concentrations.Human brain mapping · 2025Article
- Aperiodic neural activity reflects metacontrol in task-switching.Scientific reports · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
background"Metacontrol" describes the ability to maintain an optimal balance between cognitive control styles that are either more persistent or more flexible. Recent studies have shown a link between metacontrol and aperiodic EEG patterns. The present study aimed to gain more insight into the neurobiological underpinnings of metacontrol by using methylphenidate (MPH), a compound known to increase postsynaptic catecholamine levels and modulate cortical noise.
methodsIn a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study design, we investigated the effect of MPH (0.5 mg/kg) on aperiodic EEG activity during a flanker task in a sample of n = 25 neurotypical adults. To quantify cortical noise, we employed the fitting oscillations and one over f algorithm.
resultsCompared with placebo, MPH increased the aperiodic exponent, suggesting that it reduces cortical noise in 2 ways. First, it did so in a state-like fashion, as the main effect of the drug was visible and significant in both pre-trial and within-trial periods. Second, the electrode-specific analyses showed that the drug also affects specific processes by dampening the downregulation of noise in conditions requiring more control.
conclusionsOur findings suggest that the aperiodic exponent provides a neural marker of metacontrol states and changes therein. Further, we propose that the effectiveness of medications targeting catecholaminergic signaling can be evaluated by studying changes of cortical noise, fostering the idea of using the quantification of cortical noise as an indicator in pharmacological treatment.
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