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Neural Mechanisms Underlying Cognitive Control: Frontal Midline Theta and Pre-Cue Alpha in Healthy Controls and People with Schizophrenia

Poster Session B - Sunday, March 8, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Jie Zheng¹ (), Nicole Ogbuagu¹, Charlotte Li¹, Molly Erickson¹; ¹University of Chicago

Cognitive control enables goal-directed behavior in daily life and is often disrupted in people with schizophrenia (PSZ). The present study used electroencephalography (EEG) to examine two putative neural mechanisms underlying cognitive control: frontal midline theta (fmTheta) and pre-stimulus alpha (i.e., pre-cue alpha) in a cued task-switching paradigm adapted from Cooper et al. (2019). Cue informativeness was varied to manipulate the extent to which participants could prepare for the target and engage proactive control. We hypothesized that fmTheta power functions as a neural marker of proactive control and that pre-cue alpha supports context updating by clearing residual information from the previous trial. Data collection is ongoing, with 24 healthy controls (HC) and 15 PSZ having completed the task while EEG was recorded. Preliminary analyses showed that, as expected, fmTheta power was higher on trials in which proactive control was possible (i.e., when cues are more informative about upcoming response demands) and was reduced in PSZ relative to HC. Across participants, greater fmTheta was associated with faster reaction times, suggesting more efficient proactive control. Preliminary results also provided partial support for the proposed context-updating role of pre-cue alpha: higher pre-cue alpha was marginally associated with lower switch costs in HC. Together, these preliminary findings reinforce the role of fmTheta as a neural marker of proactive control, demonstrate individual differences linking greater fmTheta to more efficient control engagement, and highlight a potential role for pre-cue alpha in clearing previous-trial information to facilitate task performance.

Topic Area: EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Goal maintenance & switching