The role of glucose and fatigue in cognitive control and sustained attention: an electroencephalographic assessment

Cognitive control mechanisms were examined through depletion and restoration manipulations common in self-regulation literature. In this within-subjects, double-blind placebo controlled experiment, 33 participants performed three blocks of a high-congruency version of the flanker task while their EEG signals were recorded. Cognitive fatigue was induced in participants by lengthy flanker blocks, and they received either glucose or a placebo so we could examine the effects of metabolic restoration. Overall, there was a main effect of cognitive fatigue on flanker accuracy and on error-related event related potentials (ERPs). Participants had more accurate responses in the third block of the flanker task when they drank glucose as compared to the placebo. Additionally, the error-related negativity (ERN) waveform increased in amplitude during the third block of the flanker task when participants drank glucose. These findings suggest that there is overlap between the bodies of literature on cognitive control and self-regulation, specifically when measuring the activity in the anterior cingulate cortex during conflict paradigms.