Metacontrol is reflected in phasic but not tonic cognitive control dynamics.

ABSTRACT: Metacontrol, the regulation of cognitive strategies to balance persistence and flexibility, has been theorized to operate either as a tonic state, maintaining a consistent neural bias, or as a phasic mechanism, dynamically adjusting to situational demands. This study tested these scenarios by examining the relationship between metacontrol biases and changes in the aperiodic exponent of EEG activity. Behavioral results replicated well-established effects. Neural analyses revealed significant post-stimulus increases in the aperiodic exponent during incongruent trials, reflecting enhanced persistence in response to high-conflict conditions. Crucially, the absence of pre-stimulus effects supports the phasic hypothesis, suggesting metacontrol biases emerge dynamically rather than maintaining a

SUBMITTER: Wang X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12460678 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature