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Investigating the Neural Correlates of the Stroop Effect with Magnetoencephalography

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Abstract

Reporting the ink color of a written word when it is itself a color name incongruent with the ink color (e.g. “red” printed in blue) induces a robust interference known as the Stroop effect. Although this effect has been the subject of numerous functional neuroimaging studies, its neuronal substrate is still a matter of debate. Here, we investigated the spatiotemporal dynamics of interference-related neural events using magnetoencephalography (MEG) and voxel-based analyses (SPM8). Evoked magnetic fields (EMFs) were acquired in 12 right-handed healthy subjects performing a color-word Stroop task. Behavioral results disclosed a classic interference effect with longer mean reaction times for incongruent than congruent stimuli. At the group level, EMFs’ differences between incongruent and congruent trials spanned from 380 to 700 ms post-stimulus onset. Underlying neural sources were identified in the left pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA) and in the left posterior parietal cortex (PPC) confirming the role of these regions in conflict processing.

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Acknowledgments

Sophie Galer (Research Fellow), Noémie Ligot (Clinical Master Specialist Applicant to a PhD) and Xavier De Tiège (Post-doctorate Clinical Master Specialist) are supported by a research grant from the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FRS-FNRS, Belgium). Mathieu Bourguignon is supported by a research grant from the Fonds pour la formation à la Recherche dans l’Industrie et dans l’Agriculture (FRIA, FRS-FNRS, Belgium). Charline Urbain was supported by a special grant of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Vigneron Foundation) and the ULB-ARC project “Pathophysiology of Memory Consolidation Processes”. This work has been supported by a research grant from the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (Research convention: 3.4508.10, FRS-FNRS, Belgium).

Conflict of interest

None of the authors has a potential conflict of interest to declare.

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  1. LCFC - Laboratoire de Cartographie fonctionnelle du Cerveau ULB-Hôpital Erasme and UNI - ULB Neurosciences Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 808 Route de Lennik, 1070, Brussels, Belgium

    Sophie Galer, Marc Op De Beeck, Charline Urbain, Mathieu Bourguignon, Noémie Ligot, Vincent Wens, Brice Marty, Patrick Van Bogaert & Xavier De Tiège

  2. UR2NF - Neuropsychology and Functional Neuroimaging Research Group at CRCN - Center for Research in Cognition and Neurosciences and UNI - ULB Neurosciences Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium

    Sophie Galer, Charline Urbain & Philippe Peigneux

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  1. Sophie Galer
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  2. Marc Op De Beeck
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  10. Xavier De Tiège
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Correspondence to Sophie Galer.

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Galer, S., Op De Beeck, M., Urbain, C. et al. Investigating the Neural Correlates of the Stroop Effect with Magnetoencephalography. Brain Topogr 28, 95–103 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-014-0367-5

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