Throughout the day, people experience a series of natural fluctuations in our level of physical arousal. These changes in our physiological state, ranging from deep sleep to physical exhaustion, appear to impact cognition. To study the behavioral dynamics of cognitive control and decision-making during high and low arousal states, researchers from CIMCYC presented a conflict task to participants while they were falling asleep or engaging in high-intensity physical exercise.
This recent study, conducted by the HBC Group: Cognitive and Affect Dynamics Lab (University of Granada) and the Cambridge Consciousness and Cognition Lab (University of Cambridge), combines two different experiments with the aim of observing the modulation of behavior and cognition across the arousal spectrum. In the first experiment, 33 individuals who easily fall asleep responded to an auditory Simon task during drowsy and alert wakefulness states. In the second experiment, 39 well-trained cyclists responded to the same task while pedaling at very low intensity (10% of their cardiorespiratory capacity) and very high intensity (80%). The databases from both experiments were combined to examine whether low and high arousal differently modulated performance, cognitive control effects, and decision-making mechanisms.
The results of this research indicate that the effects associated with cognitive control, such as conflict (slower responses to incongruent vs. congruent stimuli) and adaptation (less conflict after an incongruent vs. congruent situation), are preserved during both arousal states. In other words, our ability to deal with incongruence and adapt flexibly to the environment seems to remain intact during drowsiness and intense physical exercise. However, overall performance on the task significantly decreased during the low arousal state, with participants responding more slowly and making more errors, but not during high arousal.
Moreover, drift-diffusion computational models were used to estimate variables related to decision-making underlying cognitive control. These models revealed that decision-making appears to become less efficient during drowsiness, with a slower rate of evidence accumulation, greater non-decisional time (sensory encoding and/or motor response), and greater separation between decision thresholds (meaning the system requires more evidence to make a decision and execute a response). In contrast, the high arousal state was unexpectedly associated with less interference from the processing of irrelevant information for the task. In other words, high-intensity physical exercise seems to be related to a seemingly reduced attentional focus.
Reference: Alameda, C., Avancini, C., Sanabria, D., Bekinschtein, T. A., Canales-Johnson, A., & Ciria, L. F. (2023). Staying in control: Characterizing the mechanisms underlying cognitive control in high and low arousal states. *British Journal of Psychology*. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12715
Contact researchers:
Clara Alameda (clara.alameda@ugr.es)