Diversity of the P3 in the task-switching paradigm

Electrophysiological studies investigating task switching usually reveal results of the parietal P3. In this study we investigated the frontal and parietal P3 after cues, targets and responses in a combined go/no-go task switch paradigm. We confirm behavioral findings showing reduction of switch costs after no-go trials. This was accompanied by a number of P3 findings: first, the cue-locked parietal P3 was increased after a switch relative to a repetition, regardless whether a go or no-go was previously required but the frontal counterpart was less positive after inhibited responses. Secondly, in the target-locked ERPs task-set switching decreased the P3 at parietal sites, while persisting inhibition from no-go in n-1 was associated with an attenuation of the frontal P3 relative to go in n-1. No impact of task set on the frontal P3 and response mode in n-1 on the parietal P3 was found, suggesting functional dissociation between task set switch and response mode in n-1. Thirdly, exactly the same pattern was observed in the response locked frontal and parietal P3. Fourthly, the task switch related parietal P3 attenuation after targets was also observed in current no-go trials, indicating task and response selection without response execution. No task switch effect on the frontal “no-go P3” was found. In sum, these results suggest that the cue-locked long-lasting P3 reflects task-set updating, whereas the post-target frontal P3 is associated with persisting response inhibition and parietal P3 is related to an after-effect of task-set activation in terms of response selection as it appears both in the target- as well as response-locked ERPs. Furthermore, the post-target parietal P3 effects are most likely due to N2 effects as a more pronounced N2 in switch trials the smaller the P3. A fronto-parietal network for an adaptive control of response requirements and task sets is proposed.

► Task set switching increases the cue-locked centro-parietal P3 regardless of persisting response inhibition.
► Task set switching decreases the target-locked centro-parietal P3 regardless of persisting response inhibition.
► Persisting response inhibition reduces the frontal P3.
► The same pattern of centro-parietal and frontal P3 occurs in the in target- and response-locked ERPs.
► Task-set switching and response inhibition represent distinct functional mechanisms involving different brain areas.