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Updated: May 16, 2026
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Online Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Protocol for Measuring Cortical Physiology Associated with Response Inhibition
Published on: February 8, 2018
Reliability and plasticity of response inhibition and interference control
Nicola M Wöstmann1, Désirée S Aichert, Anna Costa
1Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany.
Brain and Cognition
|November 24, 2012
Summary
Most inhibition measures are reliable over time, but stop-signal reaction time is not. This is important for longitudinal studies using cognitive tasks.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Inhibition-related functions are crucial for cognitive control.
- Reliable measurement of these functions is essential for research, especially in longitudinal studies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the internal reliability, temporal stability, and plasticity of common inhibition tasks.
- To inform the selection of appropriate measures for studies requiring temporally stable parameters.
Main Methods:
- Administered seven inhibition tasks (Stop-signal, go/no-go, antisaccade, Simon, Eriksen flanker, Stroop, Continuous Performance) twice to 23 healthy adults over ~11 weeks.
- Assessed test-retest correlations, internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha), and performance changes within and between sessions.
Main Results:
- Most inhibition measures demonstrated good test-retest reliability and internal consistency.
- Stop-signal reaction time exhibited poor reliability.
- Minor performance improvements and reduced reaction time variability were observed in some tasks (Eriksen flanker, Simon, Stroop) at the second assessment.
- Most measures showed stable performance within a single test session.
Conclusions:
- Most commonly used inhibition measures are reliable and temporally stable, suitable for longitudinal research.
- Stop-signal reaction time should be used with caution in studies requiring high reliability.
- Findings provide guidance for researchers selecting cognitive tasks for longitudinal or genetic studies.
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