A Central Component of the N1 Event-Related Brain Potential Could Index the Early and Automatic Inhibition of the Actions Systematically Activated by Objects

作者：J. Bruno Debruille, Molly Touzel, Julia P. Segal, Christine Snidal, Louis Renoult · 发表于：Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience · 年份：2019 · DOI：10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00095 · 被引用次数：18 · 研究领域：EEG and Brain-Computer Interfaces、Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies、Neural dynamics and brain function

Stimuli of the environment, like objects, systematically activate the actions they are associated to. These activations occur extremely fast. Nevertheless, behavioural data reveal that, in most cases, these activations are then automatically inhibited, around 100 ms after the occurrence of the stimulus. We thus tested whether this early inhibition could be indexed by a central component of the N1 event-related brain potential (ERP). To achieve that goal, we looked at whether this ERP component is greater in tasks that could increase the inhibition and in trials where reaction times happen to be long. The illumination of a real space bar of a keyboard out of the dark was used as a stimulus. To maximize the modulation of the inhibition, the task participants had to perform was manipulated across blocks. A look-only task and a count task were used to increase inhibition and an immediate press task was used to decrease it. ERPs of the two block-conditions where presses had to be prevented and where the largest central N1s were predicted were compared to those elicited in the press task, differentiating the ERPs to the third of the trials where presses were the slowest from the ERPs to the third of the trials with the fastest presses. Despite larger negativities due to motor potentials and despite greater attention likely in immediate press-trials, central N1s were found to be minimal for the fastest presses, intermediate for the slowest ones and maximal for the two no-press condi...