Increased brain activation during the processing of spatially invalidly cued targets

In a spatial central cue Posner s paradigm, positions in the vertical meridian were cued in order to evaluate the neuro-cognitive consequences in the processing of validly cued (VC) and invalidly cued (IC) targets. Sixty-four EEG channels were recorded and analyzed showing that IC targets produced an enhanced P3 component with respect to VC targets. With the purpose of reinforcing the idea of increased activation during IC targets and to define the areas in which the increased activation would occur, source localization was applied to the ERPs. LORETA and single dipole localization showed that the early P3 presented a localization in the dorsal part of the anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), while the late P3 was fitted by single dipole more posterior than the early P3, and LORETA added a source in the parahippocampal gyrus in addition to the already activated dACC. LORETA results also showed a differential activation of the inferior frontal gyrus when IC targets were processed. The previous results suggest that subjects prepare to accomplish the task upon specification of the cue. Therefore, when the IC target appears, it induces the activation of the frontal cortex including areas related to the conflict monitoring system and to the processing of unexpected events. The IC targets also induce the revision of internal models about the task, possibly by activation of the temporo-mesial surface. All the obtained current source differences indicate that a higher brain activation during IC trials with respect to VC trials occurs.