This review synthesizes intracranial EEG (iEEG) studies in humans to examine the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive stability (focusing on task-relevant stimuli, resisting distraction) and cognitive flexibility (shifting between goals/rules), using conflict-control and task-switching paradigms.
Two levels of mechanism are proposed: (1) oscillatory coordination — medial frontal theta (4–8 Hz) propagates conflict-control and task-switching signals across cortical/subcortical networks, high gamma (70–150 Hz) indexes local regional engagement, and beta (13–30 Hz) regulates maintenance vs. updating of task sets in working memory; (2) neuronal population coding — neural partitioning of task sets into distinct subspaces supports simultaneous representation of domain-general and domain-specific information.
As a narrative review, it does not include a systematic search or meta-analytic synthesis. iEEG findings are from epilepsy surgical patients, limiting generalizability to healthy populations. No new empirical data are presented.
These oscillatory signatures — particularly frontal theta and beta — may eventually serve as biomarkers for psychiatric and neurological conditions marked by impaired cognitive control (e.g., ADHD, schizophrenia). Clinicians should note this framework is currently theoretical and requires prospective validation before clinical application.
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