Response and conflict expectations shape motor responses interactively.

Abstract

Efficient responses in dynamic environments rely on a combination of readiness and flexibility, regulated by anticipatory and online response control mechanisms. The latter are required when a motor response needs to be reprogrammed or when flanker stimuli induce response conflict and they are crucially modulated by anticipatory signals such as response and conflict expectations. The mutual influence and interplay of these control processes remain to be elucidated. Our behavioral study employed a novel combined response cueing/conflict task designed to test for interactive effects of response reprogramming and conflict resolution and their modulation by expectations. To this end, valid and invalid response cues were combined with congruent and incongruent target flankers. Expectations were modulated by systematically manipulating the proportions of valid versus invalid cues and congruent versus incongruent flanker stimuli in different task blocks. Reaction time and accuracy were assessed in thirty-one healthy volunteers. The results revealed response reprogramming and conflict resolution interactions for both behavioral measures, modulated by response and conflict expectations. Accuracy decreased disproportionally when invalidly cued targets with incongruent flankers were least expected. These findings support coordinated and partially overlapping anticipatory and online response control mechanisms within motor-cognitive networks.