Abstract: Performance-contingent reward incentive has repeatedly been shown to influence cognitive control. More precisely, previous evidence suggests that performance-contingent reward can increase proactive control. Few studies, however, have investigated the neural mechanisms of the influence of monetary punishment on cognitive control. It is still unclear how punishment modulates the trade-off between proactive and reactive control. The present study used the AX-CPT, a modified version of the continuous performance test (CPT), in combination with multi-channel functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) imaging to explore the temporal dynamic activity of prefrontal cortex (PFC) in punishment condition, so as to investigate the impact of punishment on cognitive control strategies and brain activity. Nineteen healthy adults (M = 23years, range = 18-26; 11 females) participated in this study. Participants were asked to complete a the AX-CPT under blocked punishment-incentive and no-incentive (neutral) conditions in separate blocks. Within the punishment block, non-punishment incentive trials were randomly intermixed with punishment incentive trials. In the baseline block, participants were told to ignore the precues;in the reward block, participants were informed that they signified non-incentive and incentive trials, respectively. The trial was a jitter of 4000-9000ms, in order to ensure robust deconvolution of event-related fNIRS responses. Participants were instructed to press the target button only when “A” followed by “X”; AX trial:70%), with all other combinations (AY, BX, BY trial:10%) requiring a non-target response. To record the hemodynamics when participants performed the AX-CPT task, a multi-channel fNIRS system (LABNIRS, Shimadzu Corporation, Kyoto, Japan) was used, with three wavelengths of near-infrared light (780, 805, and 830 nm) to measure changes PFC in the concentration of hemoglobin. Behavioral results showed the increase in RT was observed for all trial types under punishment condition, whereas the error costs in AY trials indicating that participants use to proactive control strategy under punishment condition. The fNIRS data revealed under punishment condition the PFC temporal dynamics fit a proactive control pattern (primarily cue-based deactivation). The findings of the present study indicates that monetary punishment can increase proactive control and impact the activation dynamics in PFC regions that mediate such cognitive control strategies. These results support for DMC that cognitive control strategies are flexible and can be flexibly shifted within PFC.

Key words: monetary punishment, trade-off of cognitive control, proactive control, fNIRS

摘要： 为了探讨预期惩罚是如何影响认知控制权衡，本研究采用fNIRS技术考察被试在完成有惩罚和无惩罚AX-CPT任务时的行为表现和大脑激活模式。行为结果发现：与无惩罚的基线条件相比，惩罚条件下个体偏向主动性控制。脑成像结果发现：与无惩罚的基线条件相比，惩罚条件下大脑前额叶皮层在线索阶段处于负激活状态。这说明，惩罚条件下在线索阶段个体需要更多的注意资源，因此，脑成像的结果也表明惩罚使被试更偏向主动性控制。

关键词: 惩罚, 认知控制权衡, 主动性控制, fNIRS