There is an urgent need to identify the mechanisms that contribute to atypical thinking and behavior associated with psychiatric illness. Behavioral and brain measures of cognitive control are associated with a variety of psychiatric disorders and conditions as well as daily life functioning. Recognition of the importance of cognitive control in human behavior has led to intensive research into behavioral and neurobiological correlates. Oscillations in the theta band (4–8 Hz) over medial frontal recording sites are becoming increasingly established as a direct neural index of certain aspects of cognitive control. In this review, we point toward evidence that theta acts to coordinate multiple neural processes in disparate brain regions during task processing to optimize behavior. Theta-related signals in human electroencephalography include the N2, the error-related negativity, and measures of theta power in the (time-)frequency domain. We investigate how these theta signals are affected in a wide range of psychiatric conditions with known deficiencies in cognitive control: anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and substance abuse. Theta-related control signals and their temporal consistency were found to differ in most patient groups compared with healthy control subjects, suggesting fundamental deficits in reactive and proactive control. Notably, however, clinical studies directly investigating the role of theta in the coordination of goal-directed processes across different brain regions are uncommon and are encouraged in future research. A finer-grained analysis of flexible, subsecond-scale functional networks in psychiatric disorders could contribute to a dimensional understanding of psychopathology.

迫切需要确定导致与精神疾病相关的非典型思维和行为的机制。认知控制的行为和大脑测量与各种精神疾病和状况以及日常生活功能有关。认识到认知控制在人类行为中的重要性导致了对行为和神经生物学相关性的深入研究。内侧额叶记录位点上的 theta 波段（4-8 Hz）振荡正日益成为认知控制某些方面的直接神经指标。在这篇综述中，我们指出了在任务处理过程中，theta 可以协调不同大脑区域中的多个神经过程以优化行为的证据。人类脑电图中与 Theta 相关的信号包括 N2、与误差相关的负性，以及（时间-）频域中的 theta 功率测量。我们调查了这些 theta 信号如何在认知控制方面存在已知缺陷的各种精神疾病中受到影响：焦虑、强迫症、注意力缺陷/多动障碍和药物滥用。与健康对照组相比，大多数患者组的 Theta 相关控制信号及其时间一致性存在差异，这表明反应和主动控制存在根本缺陷。然而，值得注意的是，直接调查 theta 在跨不同大脑区域协调目标导向过程中的作用的临床研究并不常见，并且在未来的研究中受到鼓励。更细粒度的灵活分析，