ArticleScientific reports2024
Aperiodic neural activity reflects metacontrol in task-switching.
Article in Scientific reports, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- Changes in Aperiodic (1/f Slope) Activity During a Picture-Word Interference Task: Effects of Congruency and Sequence Manipulations.Psychophysiology · 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
- Time-resolved aperiodic dynamics in event segmentation in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.Brain communications · 2026Article
- Changes in aperiodic (1/bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Analysis of aperiodic activity in obsessive-compulsive disorder and major depression.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Metacontrol is reflected in phasic but not tonic cognitive control dynamics.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The Dynamic Management of Working Memory Is Supported by Aperiodic Neural Activity.Psychophysiology · 2025Article
- Sustained Hippocampal Theta Oscillations Reflect Experience-Dependent Learning in Backward Temporal Order Memory Retrieval.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Metacontrol-related aperiodic neural activity decreases but strategic adjustment thereof increases from childhood to adulthood.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Linking the multiple-demand cognitive control system to human electrophysiological activity.Neuropsychologia · 2025Review
- Catecholaminergic Modulation of Metacontrol Is Reflected in Aperiodic EEG Activity and Predicted by Baseline GABA+ and Glx Concentrations.Human brain mapping · 2025Article
- Distinct and complementary mechanisms of oscillatory and aperiodic alpha activity in visuospatial attention.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Article
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6 authors.
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Abstract
"Metacontrol" refers to the ability to find the right balance between more persistent and more flexible cognitive control styles, depending on task demands. Recent research on tasks involving response conflict regulation indicates a consistent link between aperiodic EEG activity and task conditions that demand a more or less persistent control style. In this study, we explored whether this connection between metacontrol and aperiodic activity also applies to cognitive flexibility. We examined EEG and behavioral data from two separate samples engaged in a task-switching paradigm, allowing for an internal replication of our findings. Both studies revealed that aperiodic activity significantly decreased during task switching compared to task repetition. Our results support the predictions of metacontrol theory but contradict those of traditional control theories which would have predicted the opposite pattern of results. We propose that aperiodic activity observed in EEG signals serves as a valid indicator of dynamic neuroplasticity in metacontrol, suggesting that truly adaptive metacontrol does not necessarily bias processing towards persistence in response to every control challenge, but chooses between persistence and flexibility biases depending on the nature of the challenge.
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