Gálvez García, G. 1, 2, 3 , Zwick, G. 1 , Plaza, B. 1 & Michael, G. A. 1
1 Laboratory of Cognitive Mechanisms. University of Lyon 2.
2 French Institute of Science and Technology for Transport, Development and Networks (IFSTTAR), Lyon, France
3 SolEI company (Integral Ergonomics Solutions)
The cognitive inhibition has been deeply studied in the last decades. Nevertheless this term has been widely used without a good understanding of the process per se. The aim of this study was to study further the cognitive inhibition to ascertain if there is more than one inhibitory mechanism for different motor actions with different requirements. For this purpose we developed two experiments where the participants responded by reaching two circles previously signaled by arrows with two motor actions; normal reaching vs inverted reaching (supination of the palm) in experiment 1, and normal reaching or avoid to response (release action) in experiment 2. This design allowed the comparison of Simon or Congruence effect respect to different motor requirements. Finally, the participants performed these motor actions in three different conditions of dual task; detect one or three numbers in an auditory task or none. The results confirmed that attentional resources are limited and the inhibition was worst (bigger Simon or Congruence effect) in experiment 2 (normal reaching vs release) but not in experiment 1 (normal reaching vs inverted reaching). These results suggest a different inhibition mechanism for different motor actions when they have a big difference in motor requirements.