The cognitive impairments in schizophrenia can be characterized as disturbances in cognitive control, defined as the ability to guide one's behavior in accordance with one's goals or intentions. Both the type of control required for successful task performance, and more recently, the signaling mechanisms that elicit control, have been intensely studied. Neuroimaging studies have shown that these components of cognitive control can be anatomically dissociated, with the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) monitoring for conflict and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex mediating strategic adjustments in control. Questions remain, however, regarding the precise relationship between different forms of conflict and control. Does conflict signal for control that is context-specific or does it elicit more global effects that generalize across contexts? Preliminary results show that conflict can, indeed, elicit control effects that extend beyond the context within which the conflict was engendered. In this proposal, we seek to replicate and extend these initial findings to assess to what extent control effects may generalize across contexts, using EEC and fMRI to test specific predictions concerning ACC activation, and translate these paradigms to further elucidate control disturbances in schizophrenia, where studies have shown impairments in cognitive control in association with diminished conflict-induced ACC activation.

R03MH073955

2006-03-01

2009-02-28