Subject-Independent Wearable P300 Brain-Computer Interface Based on Convolutional Neural Network and Metric Learning.

The calibration procedure for a wearable P300 brain-computer interface (BCI) greatly impact the user experience of the system. Each user needs to spend additional time establishing a decoder adapted to their own brainwaves. Therefore, achieving subject independent is an urgent issue for wearable P300 BCI needs to be addressed. A dataset of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals was constructed from 100 individuals by conducting a P300 speller task with a wearable EEG amplifier. A framework is proposed that initially improves cross- subject consistency of EEG features through a common feature extractor. Subsequently, a simple and compact convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture is employed to learn an embedding sub-space, where the mapped EEG features are maximally separated, while pursuing the minimum distance within the same class and the maximum distance between different classes. Finally, the model's generalization capability was further optimized through fine-tuning. Results: The proposed method significantly boosts the average accuracy of wearable P300 BCI to 73.23±7.62 % without calibration and 78.75±6.37 % with fine-tuning. The results demonstrate the feasibility and excellent performance of our dataset and framework. A calibration-free wearable P300 BCI system is feasible, suggesting significant potential for practical applications of the wearable P300 BCI system.

The impact of virtual reality and distractors on attentional processes: insights from EEG.

Virtual reality (VR) allows to create controlled scenarios in which the quantity of stimuli can be modulated, as happen in real-life, where humans are subjected to various multisensory-often overlapping-stimuli. The present research aimed to study changes in attentional processes within an auditory oddball paradigm during a virtual exploration, while varying the amount of distractors. Twenty healthy volunteers underwent electroencephalography (EEG) during three different experimental conditions: an auditory oddball without VR (No-VR condition), an auditory oddball during VR exploration without distractors (VR-Empty condition), and an auditory oddball during VR exploration with a high level of distractors (VR-Full condition). Event-related potentials (ERPs) were computed averaging epochs of EEGs and analyzing peaks at 100 ms (N100) and 300 ms (P300) latencies. Results showed modulation of N100 amplitude in Fz and of P300 amplitude in Pz. Statistically significant differences in latency were observed only for P300 where the latency results delayed from the No-VR to VR-Full. The scalp topography revealed for P100 no significant differences between frequent and rare stimuli in either the No-VR and VR-Empty conditions. However, significant results were found in N100 in VR-Full condition. For P300, results showed differences between frequent and rare stimuli, in every condition. However, this difference is gradually less widespread from No-VR condition to the VR-Full. The emerging integration of VR with EEG may have important implications for studying brain attentional processing.

The P3 event-related potential increases when humans learn a strategy for motor adaptation.

Human motor learning involves cognitive strategies in addition to implicit adaptation. Differences in systems-level neurophysiology between strategy-based and implicit learning remain poorly understood. We asked how the P3 event-related potential, an electroencephalography signal known to increase during early motor learning, relates to strategy-based learning and implicit adaptation. We re-analysed data from two experiments, in which participants (n = 64) reached towards a visual target, with online visual feedback replacing vision of their moving hand. We induced learning by rotating the visual feedback. In the first experiment, feedback rotations were turned on during pairs of two consecutive trials, interspersed between non-rotated trials. In one condition, feedback was rotated relative to the actual movement, allowing participants to develop a re-aiming strategy on the second trial of each pair, while it was rotated relative to the target in the other condition, rendering re-aiming futile. P3 amplitude increased in the first rotated trial in both conditions, but this increase was more pronounced in the re-aiming condition. In the second experiment, a constant visuomotor rotation was turned on for many consecutive trials. We instructed one group beforehand how to re-aim successfully, while the other group had to develop a strategy by themselves. P3 amplitude increased during early adaptation only in the latter group. These findings collectively suggest that in the context of motor learning, the P3 ERP is associated with a need to develop, or adjust, a cognitive strategy.

Physical exercise on cortical brain activity in patients with mild cognitive impairment: A meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Physical exercise is recognized as a potential strategy to mitigate the cognitive decline associated with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). This systematic review aims to examine the specific effects of physical exercise on cortical brain activity in patients with MCI, an area that has not been thoroughly explored. METHODS: We conducted a search across 9 electronic databases for randomized controlled trials assessing the impact of physical exercise on the cortical activity of patients with MCI. The search covered the period from database inception to September 2023. Literature screening, data extraction, and quality assessments were carried out by 2 independent researchers. Meta-analyses were conducted using RevMan 5.3, and publication bias was evaluated using STATA 17.0. This study primarily assessed P300 latency and amplitude, alongside cognitive evaluations using the mini-mental state examination and Montreal Cognitive Assessment. RESULTS: Six high-quality randomized controlled trials, involving a total of 360 participants, were included. Compared to the control group, significant enhancements were observed in the amplitude of central midline electrode (mean difference [MD] = 1.64 [95% confidence interval [CI], 0.92-2.36]; P < .00001), frontal midline electrode (MD = 2.70 [95% CI, 2.02-3.38]; P < .00001), and parietal midline electrode (MD = 2.42 [95% CI, 0.44-4.41]; P = .02). Latency periods of the central midline electrode (MD = -32.40 [95% CI, -40.27 to -24.54]; P < .00001), frontal midline electrode (MD = -12.57 [95% CI, -30.83 to 5.69]; P = .18), and parietal midline electrode (MD = -12.57 [95% CI, -30.83 to 5.69]; P = .81) were also notably influenced. Moreover, overarching cognitive functions as measured by mini-mental state examination (MD = 1.02 [95% CI, 0.61-1.43]; P < .00001) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MD = 1.39 [95% CI, 0.67-2.12]; P = .0002) exhibited marked improvement. CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis suggests that physical exercise can augment the P300 amplitude, reduce the P300 latency period, and, overall, enhance cognitive functionality in individuals with MCI.

Effects of daily listening to 6 Hz binaural beats over one month: an event-related potentials study.

The aim of the present study was to identify cognitive alterations, as indicated by event-related potentials (ERPs), after one month of daily exposure to theta binaural beats (BBs) for 10 minutes. The recruited healthy subjects (n = 60) were equally divided into experimental and control groups. For a month, the experimental group was required to practice BBs listening daily, while the control group did not. ERPs were assessed at three separate visits over a span of one month, with a two-week interval between each visit. At each visit, ERPs were measured before and after listening. The auditory and visual ERPs significantly increased the auditory and visual P300 amplitudes consistently at each visit. BBs enhanced the auditory N200 amplitude consistently across all visits, but the visual N200 amplitude increased only at the second and third visits. Compared to the healthy controls, daily exposure to BBs for two weeks resulted in increased auditory P300 amplitude. Additionally, four weeks of BBs exposure not only increased auditory P300 amplitude but also reduced P300 latency. These preliminary findings suggest that listening to BBs at 6 Hz for 10 minutes daily may enhance certain aspects of cognitive function. However, further research is needed to confirm these effects and to understand the underlying mechanisms. Identifying the optimal duration and practice of listening to 6 Hz BBs could potentially contribute to cognitive enhancement strategies in healthy individuals.

Monetary reward enhances response inhibition processes manifested in No-go P3.

This study investigated the impact of motivational valence on No-go P3 and N2 by incorporating monetary rewards based on response outcomes. We also investigated how personality differences in terms of the behavioral inhibition system (BIS) and behavioral approach system (BAS) influenced No-go N2 and No-go P3. Twenty-eight participants performed Go/No-go tasks (80 % Go and 20 % No-go) under two conditions. In the reward condition, each correct-rejection trial for the No-go stimulus was rewarded with 10 yen (∼6 cents), whereas in the neutral condition, neither monetary rewards nor punishments were contingent on response outcomes. Individual responsiveness to punishment and rewards was evaluated using the BIS and BAS scales. The error rate was significantly lower in the reward condition than in the neutral condition. P3 amplitude for correct-rejection trials (i.e., preceding erroneous muscular activity on the wrong hand) was larger in the reward condition than in the neutral condition; however, N2 amplitudes did not differ between the two conditions. These results suggest that monetary rewards may enhance motor inhibition control. Individuals with a higher BIS score exhibited a larger No-go N2 for correct-rejection in the neutral condition. We conclude that No-go N2 amplitude is modulated by avoidance motivation.

Exploring the neuropsychological basis of behavioral contagion during learning about another agent's social preferences: Evidence from an ERP study.

Social contagion is a pervasive phenomenon and an important social influence that involves the rapid dissemination (propagation) of behaviors, attitudes, emotions, or ideas from one person to another, often without conscious reflection or rational thought. This phenomenon is closely related to conformity, by which a person changes his/her original ideas and attitude and imitates certain behavior of others. Although some behavioral research has been carried out on contagion and conformity, there is very little neuropsychological understanding of these phenomena. Existing research on social influence and conformity has predominantly focused on tasks like mental rotation or rating tasks involving facial expressions, with fewer studies exploring risk preferences and temporal discounting. However, there is a notable gap in the literature when it comes to examining social influence and conformity using other­regarding preference models derived from heterodox economics. To address this research gap, the present study investigates the neuropsychological underpinnings of social contagion by utilizing event­related potentials (ERPs) recorded while subjects engage in mini­dictator games. The behavioral analysis revealed that contagion had an impact on the participants' preferences, leading to a change in their choices. We observed a P300 component in the midline and right posterior during the time window of 200­350 ms after stimulus onset, which showed a significant increase in mean amplitude when participants observed others' behavior, compared to when they made decisions based on their own preferences. Moreover, the lack of late positive potential in the time window of 500­650 ms suggests that the presence of P300 may indicate difficulty in making decisions. In summary, by analyzing both behavioral and ERP data, this study may provide a more comprehensive understanding of the cognitive and neural processes that drive conformity and contagion behavior. Our analysis has the potential to inform policymakers in developing effective interventions for promoting positive social behaviors and reducing negative ones.

Association of GAD1 gene polymorphism rs3749034 with the information processing and cognitive event-related potentials in schizophrenia patients and healthy subjects.

OBJECTIVE: Glutamic acid decarboxylase, an enzyme in GABA biosynthesis, is encoded by the GAD1 gene, the transcriptional activity of which is affected by the rs3749034 polymorphism. The aim was to investigate the effects of rs3749034 on cognitive event-related potentials (P300) in healthy subjects and schizophrenic patients. METHODS: Determination of rs3749034 polymorphism was performed in 89 healthy volunteers and 109 schizophrenic patients (males). Two-stimulus oddball task performance and P300 auditory evoked potentials were analyzed and patient symptomatology was assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). RESULTS: An increased frequency of C allele carriers was disclosed in patients. In controls, superior task performance was observed in cytosine-thymine carriers, while a greater P300 amplitude and shorter latency were found in C/C carriers. Analogous effects were found in patients with a disease onset before 25 years of age. Higher N5 and lower P3 and G5 PANSS scales were revealed in C/C homozygotes. CONCLUSIONS: The findings substantiate an involvement of GABA-ergic mechanisms in maintaining an optimal excitatory-inhibitory balance and an association of rs3749034 with early-onset disorder and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. SIGNIFICANCE: These results are important for understanding underlying mechanisms and the development of evidence-based methods for assessing the risk of schizophrenia.

Is it too loud? Ask your brain!

PURPOSE: In this study, the objectification of the subjective perception of loudness was investigated using electroencephalography (EEG). In particular, the emergence of objective markers in the domain of the acoustic discomfort threshold was examined. METHODS: A cohort of 27 adults with normal hearing, aged between 18 and 30, participated in the study. The participants were presented with 500 ms long noise stimuli via in-ear headphones. The acoustic signals were presented with sound levels of [55, 65, 75, 85, 95 dB]. After each stimulus, the subjects provided their subjective assessment of the perceived loudness using a colored scale on a touchscreen. EEG signals were recorded, and afterward, event-related potentials (ERPs) locked to sound onset were analyzed. RESULTS: Our findings reveal a linear dependency between the N100 component and both the sound level and the subjective loudness categorization of the sound. Additionally, the data demonstrated a nonlinear relationship between the P300 potential and the sound level as well as for the subjective loudness rating. The P300 potential was elicited exclusively when the stimuli had been subjectively rated as "very loud" or "too loud". CONCLUSION: The findings of the present study suggest the possibility of the identification of the subjective uncomfortable loudness level by objective neural parameters.

The interplay between the proposer's role model and moral behavior modulates proposal processing in the Ultimatum Game: An ERP study.

Economic decision-making plays a paramount role in both individual and national interests. Individuals have fairness preferences in economic decision-making, but a proposer's moral-related information may affect fairness considerations. In prior ERP studies, researchers have suggested moral identity influences fairness preferences in the Ultimatum Game (UG), but there are discrepancies in the results. Furthermore, whether role models (individuals whom someone else looks to help decide suitable behaviors), who can modulate people's moral standards, can affect fairness concerns in UG is still understudied. To address the questions, we selected the moral-related statements by eliminating those with illegal information and employed the ERP technique to explore whether the interplay of the proposer's role model and moral-related behavior influenced fairness processing in the modified UG and the corresponding neural mechanisms. We mainly found that the aforementioned interaction effect on proposal considerations in UG could be mirrored in both rejection rates and P300 variations. The results demonstrate that the interaction between the proposer's role model and moral behavior can modulate fairness concerns in UG. Our current work provides new avenues for elucidating the time course of the influencing mechanism of fair distributions in complicated social environments.

Saccade size predicts onset time of object processing during visual search of an open world virtual environment.

OBJECTIVE: To date the vast majority of research in the visual neurosciences have been forced to adopt a highly constrained perspective of the vision system in which stimuli are processed in an open-loop reactive fashion (i.e., abrupt stimulus presentation followed by an evoked neural response). While such constraints enable high construct validity for neuroscientific investigation, the primary outcomes have been a reductionistic approach to isolate the component processes of visual perception. In electrophysiology, of the many neural processes studied under this rubric, the most well-known is, arguably, the P300 evoked response. There is, however, relatively little known about the real-world corollary of this component in free-viewing paradigms where visual stimuli are connected to neural function in a closed-loop. While growing evidence suggests that neural activity analogous to the P300 does occur in such paradigms, it is an open question when this response occurs and what behavioral or environmental factors could be used to isolate this component. APPROACH: The current work uses convolutional networks to decode neural signals during a free-viewing visual search task in a closed-loop paradigm within an open-world virtual environment. From the decoded activity we construct fixation-locked response profiles that enable estimations of the variable latency of any P300 analogue around the moment of fixation. We then use these estimates to investigate which factors best reduce variable latency and, thus, predict the onset time of the response. We consider measurable, search-related factors encompassing top-down (i.e., goal driven) and bottom-up (i.e., stimulus driven) processes, such as fixation duration and salience. We also consider saccade size as an intermediate factor reflecting the integration of these two systems. MAIN RESULTS: The results show that of these factors only saccade size reliably determines the onset time of P300 analogous activity for this task. Specifically, we find that for large saccades the variability in response onset is small enough to enable analysis using traditional ensemble averaging methods. SIGNIFICANCE: The results show that P300 analogous activity does occur during closed-loop, free-viewing visual search while highlighting distinct differences between the open-loop version of this response and its real-world analogue. The results also further establish saccades, and saccade size, as a key factor in real-world visual processing.

Behavioral and neural responses to social exclusion in women: the role of facial attractiveness and friendliness.

The behavioral and neural responses to social exclusion were examined in women randomized to four conditions, varying in levels of attractiveness and friendliness. Informed by evolutionary theory, we predicted that being socially excluded by attractive unfriendly women would be more distressing than being excluded by unattractive women, irrespective of their friendliness level. Our results contradicted most of our predictions but provide important insights into women's responses to interpersonal conflict. Accounting for rejection sensitivity, P300 event-related potential amplitudes were largest when women were excluded by unattractive unfriendly women. This may be due to an expectancy violation or an annoyance with being excluded by women low on social desirability. An examination of anger rumination rates by condition suggests the latter. Only attractive women's attractiveness ratings were lowered in the unfriendly condition, indicating they were specifically punished for their exclusionary behavior. Women were more likely to select attractive women to compete against with one exception-they selected the Black attractive opponent less often than the White attractive opponent when presented as unfriendly. Finally, consistent with studies on retaliation in relation to social exclusion, women tended to rate competitors who rejected them as being more rude, more competitive, less attractive, less nice, and less happy than non-competitors. The ubiquity of social exclusion and its pointed emotional and physiological impact on women demands more research on this topic.

Decrease in reaction time for volleyball athletes during saccadic eye movement task: A preliminary study with evoked potentials.

AIM: This preliminary study investigated the differences in event-related potential and reaction time under two groups (athletes vs. non-athletes). MATERIAL AND METHODS: The P300 was analyzed for Fz, Cz, and Pz electrodes in thirty-one healthy volunteers divided into two groups (volleyball athletes and non-athletes). In addition, the participants performed a saccadic eye movement task to measure reaction time. RESULTS: The EEG analysis showed that the athletes, in comparison to the no-athletes, have differences in the P300 in the frontal area (p = 0.021). In relation to reaction time, the results show lower reaction time for athletes (p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The volleyball athletes may present a greater allocation of attention during the execution of the inhibition task, since they have a lower reaction time for responses when compared to non-athletes.

Application of hybrid SSVEP + P300 brain computer interface to control avatar movement in mobile virtual reality gaming environment.

INTRODUCTION: This research evaluated the feasibility of a hybrid SSVEP + P300 brain computer interface (BCI) for controlling the movement of an avatar in a virtual reality (VR) gaming environment (VR + BCI). Existing VR + BCI gaming environments have limitations, such as visual fatigue, a lower communication rate, minimum accuracy, and poor system comfort. Hence, there is a need for an optimized hybrid BCI system that can simultaneously evoke the strongest P300 and SSVEP potentials in the cortex. METHODS: A BCI headset was coupled with a VR headset to generate a VR + BCI environment. The author developed a VR game in which the avatar's movement is controlled using the user's cortical responses with the help of a BCI headset. Specifically designed visual stimuli were used in the proposed system to elicit the strongest possible responses from the user's brain. The proposed system also includes an auditory feedback mechanism to facilitate precise avatar movement. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Conventional P300 BCI and SSVEP BCI were also used to control the movements of the avatar, and their performance metrics were compared to those of the proposed system. The results demonstrated that the hybrid SSVEP + P300 BCI system was superior to the other systems for controlling avatar movement.

Event-related potentials of social comparisons in depression and social anxiety.

Social comparison is central in human life and can be especially challenging in depression and social anxiety. We assessed event-related potentials and emotions using a social comparison task in which participants received feedback on both their own and a co-player's performance, in participants with depression and/or social anxiety (n = 63) and healthy controls (n = 72). Participants reported more negative emotions for downward (being better than the co-player [participant correct, co-player wrong]) and upward (being worse than the co-player [participant wrong, co-player correct]) comparisons versus even outcomes, with these effects being stronger in depression and social anxiety. At the Medial Frontal Negativity, both controls and depressed participants showed a more negative amplitude for upward comparison versus both the participant and co-player performing wrong. Socially anxious subjects showed the opposite effect, possibly due to greater expectations about being worse than others. The P300 decreased for downward and upward comparisons compared to even outcomes, which may relate to the higher levels of conflict of social inequality. Depressed and socially anxious subjects showed a blunted P300 increase over time in response to the task outcomes, suggesting deficits in allocating resources for the attention of incoming social information. The LPP showed increased amplitude for downward and upward comparison versus the even outcomes and no group effect. Emotional findings suggest that social comparisons are more difficult for depressed and socially anxious individuals. Event-related potentials findings may shed light on the neural substrates of these difficulties.

Identification of Methamphetamine Abusers Can Be Supported by EEG-Based Wavelet Transform and BiLSTM Networks.

Methamphetamine (MA) is a neurological drug, which is harmful to the overall brain cognitive function when abused. Based on this property of MA, people can be divided into those with MA abuse and healthy people. However, few studies to date have investigated automatic detection of MA abusers based on the neural activity. For this reason, the purpose of this research was to investigate the difference in the neural activity between MA abusers and healthy persons and accordingly discriminate MA abusers. First, we performed event-related potential (ERP) analysis to determine the time range of P300. Then, the wavelet coefficients of the P300 component were extracted as the main features, along with the time and frequency domain features within the selected P300 range to classify. To optimize the feature set, F_score was used to remove features below the average score. Finally, a Bidirectional Long Short-term Memory (BiLSTM) network was performed for classification. The experimental result showed that the detection accuracy of BiLSTM could reach 83.85%. In conclusion, the P300 component of EEG signals of MA abusers is different from that in normal persons. Based on this difference, this study proposes a novel way for the prevention and diagnosis of MA abuse.

A Hybrid BCI Integrating EEG and Eye-Tracking for Assisting Clinical Communication in Patients With Disorders of Consciousness.

Assessing communication abilities in patients with disorders of consciousness (DOCs) is challenging due to limitations in the behavioral scale. Electroencephalogram-based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) and eye-tracking for detecting ocular changes can capture mental activities without requiring physical behaviors and thus may be a solution. This study proposes a hybrid BCI that integrates EEG and eye tracking to facilitate communication in patients with DOC. Specifically, the BCI presented a question and two randomly flashing answers (yes/no). The subjects were instructed to focus on an answer. A multimodal target recognition network (MTRN) is proposed to detect P300 potentials and eye-tracking responses (i.e., pupil constriction and gaze) and identify the target in real time. In the MTRN, the dual-stream feature extraction module with two independent multiscale convolutional neural networks extracts multiscale features from multimodal data. Then, the multimodal attention strategy adaptively extracts the most relevant information about the target from multimodal data. Finally, a prototype network is designed as a classifier to facilitate small-sample data classification. Ten healthy individuals, nine DOC patients and one LIS patient were included in this study. All healthy subjects achieved 100% accuracy. Five patients could communicate with our BCI, with 76.1±7.9% accuracy. Among them, two patients who were noncommunicative on the behavioral scale exhibited communication ability via our BCI. Additionally, we assessed the performance of unimodal BCIs and compared MTRNs with other methods. All the results suggested that our BCI can yield more sensitive outcomes than the CRS-R and can serve as a valuable communication tool.

Is misokinesia sensitivity explained by visual attentional orienting? ERP evidence from an emotional oddball task suggests no.

Misokinesia is a prevalent condition characterized by strong, negative emotional reactions to the sight of repetitive fidgeting movements in others. Here we present the results of a study designed to explore the relationship between misokinesia sensitivity (MKS) and attentional sensitivity to affectively-valenced visual stimuli. In particular, we asked participants with either high or low levels of MKS to perform an emotional oddball task that included responding to faces that had either angry or happy expressions, while we recorded event-related potentials. We found that there were no significant differences between the two MKS groups in attentional sensitivity to these faces, as indexed by the amplitude of the P300 ERP component they elicited. Importantly, we could not ascribe this null ERP finding to either low statistical power or the idiosyncrasies of our ERP analysis parameters. As such, our findings add to growing evidence that MKS may not be the simple result of heightened attentional orienting responses to visual events, but rather, it may be associated with other aspects of cognitive-affective processing.

Cortical Generators and Connections Underlying Phoneme Perception: A Mismatch Negativity and P300 Investigation.

The cortical generators of the pure tone MMN and P300 have been thoroughly studied. Their nature and interaction with respect to phoneme perception, however, is poorly understood. Accordingly, the cortical sources and functional connections that underlie the MMN and P300 in relation to passive and active speech sound perception were identified. An inattentive and attentive phonemic oddball paradigm, eliciting a MMN and P300 respectively, were administered in 60 healthy adults during simultaneous high-density EEG recording. For both the MMN and P300, eLORETA source reconstruction was performed. The maximal cross-correlation was calculated between ROI-pairs to investigate inter-regional functional connectivity specific to passive and active deviant processing. MMN activation clusters were identified in the temporal (insula, superior temporal gyrus and temporal pole), frontal (rostral middle frontal and pars opercularis) and parietal (postcentral and supramarginal gyrus) cortex. Passive discrimination of deviant phonemes was aided by a network connecting right temporoparietal cortices to left frontal areas. For the P300, clusters with significantly higher activity were found in the frontal (caudal middle frontal and precentral), parietal (precuneus) and cingulate (posterior and isthmus) cortex. Significant intra- and interhemispheric connections between parietal, cingulate and occipital regions constituted the network governing active phonemic target detection. A predominantly bilateral network was found to underly both the MMN and P300. While passive phoneme discrimination is aided by a fronto-temporo-parietal network, active categorization calls on a network entailing fronto-parieto-cingulate cortices. Neural processing of phonemic contrasts, as reflected by the MMN and P300, does not appear to show pronounced lateralization to the language-dominant hemisphere.

Associations between physical activity, sedentary time, and neurocognitive function during adolescence: Evidence from accelerometry and the flanker P300.

Physical activity and sedentary behavior are two lifestyle factors related to overall health during adolescence. Public health efforts emphasize the importance of increasing physical activity to improve physical and mental health outcomes, including neurocognitive functioning. However, the unique effects of sedentary behavior on neurocognitive functioning remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate associations between daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), sedentary time, and neurocognitive functioning during adolescence. Fifty-seven participants (37% female) between the ages of 13 and 17 years wore an accelerometer on their non-dominant wrist for approximately 1 week to quantify daily MVPA and sedentary time prior to completing a flanker task to elicit P300 amplitude at a laboratory visit. Results indicated that daily MVPA and sedentary time exhibited unique, significant associations with P300 amplitude in opposing directions: increased daily MVPA was correlated with larger P300 amplitudes, while increased daily sedentary time was linked to reduced P300 amplitudes. Notably, these associations remained significant even after adjusting for age, sex, and BMI-for-age percentile. These findings underscore the independent influence of daily MVPA and sedentary time on neurocognitive functioning during adolescence. Future research should explore whether modifying MVPA levels can improve neurocognitive outcomes-including the P300-during adolescence, and determine whether reducing sedentary time results in similar or differential effects.