Is Conflict Adaptation An Illusion

Conflict adaptation theory is one of the most popular theories in cognitive psychology. The theory argues that participants strategically modulate attention away from distracting stimulus features in response to conflict. Although results with proportion congruent, sequential congruency, and similar paradigms seem consistent with the conflict adaptation view, some researchers have expressed scepticism. The paradigms used in the study of conflict adaptation require the manipulation of stimulus frequencies, sequential dependencies, time-on-task regularities, and various other task regularities that introduce the potential for learning of conflict-unrelated information. This results in the unintentional confounding of measures of conflict adaptation with simpler learning and memory biases. There are also alternative accounts which propose that attentional adaptation does occur, but via different mechanisms, such as valence, expectancy, or effort. A significant (and often heated) debate remains surrounding the question of whether conflict adaptation exists independent of these alternative mechanisms of action. The aim of this Research Topic is to provide a forum for current directions in this area, considering perspectives from all sides of the debate.

The aim of this Frontiers Research Topic is to review and further explore the topic of unconscious processing in executive control. Executive control refers to the ability of the human brain – mostly associated with prefrontal cortex activity - to regulate the processing involved in the execution of novel or complex goal-directed tasks. Previous studies or models of human cognition have assumed that executive control necessarily requires conscious processing of information. This perspective is in line with common sense and personal introspection, which suggest that our choices are intentional and based on conscious stimuli. Nevertheless, in the last few years several behavioural and cognitive neuroscience studies have put under scrutiny this assumption. Cumulating evidence is now showing that prefrontal executive control can involve or be triggered by unconscious processing of information, with consequent effects on observed behaviours. One of the main methods adopted to study such unconscious mechanisms is masked priming, consisting in presenting visually masked stimuli, which nonetheless are shown to affect goal-directed behaviour or influence constructs linked to executive control and prefrontal cortex activity (e.g., task-set representation, response inhibition, conflict monitoring, error detection, reward processing, emotion regulation and task switching). This area of research is relatively young, and - while scientific evidence is emerging - no general consensus has been reached yet on how to interpret these early findings: some researchers accept that executive control can involve unconscious processing, others momentarily put aside - in first approximation - this issue, others criticize this possibility on theoretical grounds (e.g., pointing to the need of better definitions of terms such as control, conflict and consciousness) or based on experimental findings. At this stage, it appears necessary that researchers in the field make a collective effort to deepen the understanding of the unconscious mechanisms involved in executive control. This Research Topic will focus on neuroscience, but it will welcome contributions on purely behavioural and psychophysiological studies, patient reports, computational investigations, as well as philosophical and historical analyses of the relationship between executive control and consciousness. In particular, we encourage experts in this field to submit contributions in the form of: a) reviews, opinions and discussions on existing literature concerning unconscious processing of information in executive control; b) original research articles (both behavioural-only and neuroimaging studies) on unconscious processing of information in executive control; c) discussions and opinions on new methodologies to investigate this issue (e.g., other than masked priming, which has been the technique of choice in most of the existing studies).

The two-volume set CCIS 713 and CCIS 714 contains the extended abstracts of the posters presented during the 19th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCI International 2017, held in Vancouver, BC, Canada, in July 2017. HCII 2017 received a total of 4340 submissions, of which 1228 papers were accepted for publication after a careful reviewing process. The 177 papers presented in these two volumes were organized in topical sections as follows: Part I: Design and evaluation methods, tools and practices; novel interaction techniques and devices; psychophisiological measuring and monitoring; perception, cognition and emotion in HCI; data analysis and data mining in social media and communication; ergonomics and models in work and training support. Part II: Interaction in virtual and augmented reality; learning, games and gamification; health, well-being and comfort; smart environments; mobile interaction; visual design and visualization; social issues and security in HCI.

This collection of brief essays and still briefer commentaries is a personal reflection on some topics that have been thematic in the development of my theoretical work. These essays are not meant to extend the theory into yet-uncharted territory, but rather to draw out some of its implications for clinical neuroscience, philosophy of mind, and everyday life. The point of view guiding these reflections can be found in prior works, but the discerning reader will not fail to see a departure from current models of mind and brain based on circuit board diagrams, modular and computational theories that conflict with a processual account in which the mind/brain is more like a living organism. This perspective, which is often at odds with common sense and folk psychology, has particular relevance to our concepts of the self, the inner life, subjective time, adaptive process, and the world represented in perception.

The purpose of this Research Topic is to reflect and discuss links between neuroscience, psychology, computer science and robotics with regards to the topic of cross-modal learning which has, in recent years, emerged as a new area of interdisciplinary research. The term cross-modal learning refers to the synergistic synthesis of information from multiple sensory modalities such that the learning that occurs within any individual sensory modality can be enhanced with information from one or more other modalities. Cross-modal learning is a crucial component of adaptive behavior in a continuously changing world, and examples are ubiquitous, such as: learning to grasp and manipulate objects; learning to walk; learning to read and write; learning to understand language and its referents; etc. In all these examples, visual, auditory, somatosensory or other modalities have to be integrated, and learning must be cross-modal. In fact, the broad range of acquired human skills are cross-modal, and many of the most advanced human capabilities, such as those involved in social cognition, require learning from the richest combinations of cross-modal information. In contrast, even the very best systems in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics have taken only tiny steps in this direction. Building a system that composes a global perspective from multiple distinct sources, types of data, and sensory modalities is a grand challenge of AI, yet it is specific enough that it can be studied quite rigorously and in such detail that the prospect for deep insights into these mechanisms is quite plausible in the near term. Cross-modal learning is a broad, interdisciplinary topic that has not yet coalesced into a single, unified field. Instead, there are many separate fields, each tackling the concerns of cross-modal learning from its own perspective, with currently little overlap. We anticipate an accelerating trend towards integration of these areas and we intend to contribute to that integration. By focusing on cross-modal learning, the proposed Research Topic can bring together recent progress in artificial intelligence, robotics, psychology and neuroscience.

Great Myths of the Brain introduces readers to the fieldof neuroscience by examining popular myths about the humanbrain. Explores commonly-held myths of the brain through the lens ofscientific research, backing up claims with studies and otherevidence from the literature Looks at enduring myths such as “Do we only use 10% ofour brain?”, “Pregnant women lose their mind”,“Right-brained people are more creative” and manymore. Delves into myths relating to specific brain disorders,including epilepsy, autism, dementia, and others Written engagingly and accessibly for students and lay readersalike, providing a unique introduction to the study of thebrain Teaches readers how to spot neuro hype and neuro-nonsenseclaims in the media