Differences in brain activity between fast and slow responses on psychomotor vigilance task: an fNIRS study

Attention is a basic human function underlying every other cognitive process. It is demonstrated in the functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging literature that frontoparietal networks are involved with attentive performance while default mode networks are involved with inattentive performance. Yet, it is still not clear whether similar results would be found with functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy. The goal of our study was to investigate differences in hemodynamic activity measured by functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy between fast and slow responses on a simple sustained attention task both before and after stimulus onset. Thirty healthy adults took part in the study. Our results have shown differences between fast and slow responses only on channels over medial frontal cortex and inferior parietal cortex (p < 0,05). These differences were observed both before and after stimulus presentation. It is discussed that functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy is a good tool to investigate the frontoparietal network and its relationship with performance in attention tasks; it could be used to further investigate other approaches on attention, such as the dual network model of cognitive control and brain states views based on complex systems analysis; and finally, it could be used to investigate attention in naturalistic settings.