Decoding hierarchical control of sequential behavior in oscillatory EEG activity

Abstract
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Abstract

Despite strong theoretical reasons for assuming that abstract representations organize complex action sequences in terms of subplans (chunks) and sequential positions, we lack methods to directly track such content-independent, hierarchical representations in humans. We applied time-resolved, multivariate decoding analysis to the pattern of rhythmic EEG activity that was registered while participants planned and executed individual elements from pre-learned, structured sequences. Across three experiments, the theta and alpha-band activity coded basic elements and abstract control representations, in particular the ordinal position of basic elements, but also the identity and position of chunks. Further, a robust representation of higher-level, chunk identity information was only found in individuals with above-median working memory capacity, potentially providing a neural-level explanation for working-memory differences in sequential performance. Our results suggest that by decoding oscillatory activity we can track how the cognitive system traverses through the states of a hierarchical control structure.

Data availability

All data and analysis scripts have been deposited at OSF (https://osf.io/6hmrz/).

The following data sets were generated

1. Kikumoto A
2. Mayr U
(2018) Decoding Serial Order Control
Open Science Framework, 6hmrz.

https://osf.io/6hmrz/

Article and author information

Author details

Atsushi Kikumoto

Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Ulrich Mayr

Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, United States

For correspondence
mayr@uoregon.edu

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-7512-4556

Funding

National Science Foundation (1734264)

Ulrich Mayr

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Human subjects: We obtained informed consent from human subjects. Consent and study procedures were approved by the University of Oregon's Human Subjects Institutional Review Board (Protocol 10272010.016).

Copyright

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.