Congruency effect is the increase in response time when relevant and irrelevant cues indicate incongruent rather than congruent responses. The congruency effect is smaller in the trial after an incongruent trial than after a congruent trial: this difference is known as the congruency sequence effect (CSE). Psychophysical and neural studies have suggested that the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) and the medial prefrontal cortex are associated with the CSE. In the present study, we applied anodal and cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation, which is thought to result in excitation and inhibition, respectively, on the LPFC, while human participants were performing a flanker task. We found that the CSE was increased under cathodal stimulation (inhibition) of the LPFC. Moreover, the LPFC stimulation modulated the congruency effect after a congruent trial. Further analyses suggested that the results cannot be explained by any of the currently prevailing hypotheses of the CSE, including the conflict monitoring hypothesis, feature integration hypothesis, and temporal learning account. Based on our findings, we propose that a new distinct mechanism might be involved in the CSE. Specifically, the LPFC might contribute to the CSE by maintaining the attention to the task‐relevant information, which is an endogenous goal‐oriented function and reduces the carry‐over of the task‐irrelevant information after a congruent trial.

中文翻译：

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外侧前额叶皮层在经颅直流电刺激显示的一致性序列效应中的作用

一致性效应是当相关和不相关的提示指示不一致而不是一致的响应时响应时间的增加。不一致试验后的试验中的一致性效应小于一致试验后的一致性效应：这种差异称为一致性序列效应 (CSE)。心理物理学和神经研究表明，外侧前额叶皮层 (LPFC) 和内侧前额叶皮层与 CSE 相关。在本研究中，我们应用了阳极和阴极经颅直流电刺激，这被认为分别导致 LPFC 上的激发和抑制，而人类参与者正在执行侧翼任务。我们发现 CSE 在 LPFC 的阴极刺激（抑制）下增加。而且，LPFC 刺激在一致试验后调节了一致效应。进一步的分析表明，该结果不能用任何当前流行的 CSE 假设来解释，包括冲突监控假设、特征整合假设和时间学习账户。根据我们的发现，我们建议 CSE 可能涉及一种新的独特机制。具体来说，LPFC 可能通过保持对任务相关信息的关注来促进 CSE，这是一种内生的目标导向功能，并减少了在一致试验后与任务无关信息的遗留。特征整合假设和时间学习帐户。根据我们的发现，我们建议 CSE 可能涉及一种新的独特机制。具体来说，LPFC 可能通过保持对任务相关信息的关注来促进 CSE，这是一种内生的目标导向功能，并减少了在一致试验后与任务无关信息的遗留。特征整合假设和时间学习帐户。根据我们的发现，我们建议 CSE 可能涉及一种新的独特机制。具体来说，LPFC 可能通过保持对任务相关信息的关注来促进 CSE，这是一种内生的目标导向功能，并减少了在一致试验后与任务无关信息的遗留。