Definition and research guide
This page combines a MeSH definition, publication statistics and selected research abstracts. It is a starting point for reading the literature, not a medical textbook or a systematic evidence review.
Content available: 3 complete abstracts (582 words), 9 references. Full article text is not stored or reproduced here; follow the PMID, DOI or PMC links to read the original sources and their access terms.
Definition
Cortical vigilance or readiness of tone, presumed to be in response to sensory stimulation via the reticular activating system.
Definition: NLM Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) scope note (Public domain (U.S. National Library of Medicine); attribution requested). View the MeSH record.
Also known as: Arousals; Vigilance, Cortical; Cortical Vigilance.
Where it fits in the MeSH classification
- Broader topics
- Psychophysiology; Nervous System Physiological Phenomena
- Narrower topics
- Attention; Sexual Arousal; Wakefulness
Research landscape
PubMed indexes 143,783 records tagged with the MeSH heading “Arousal” (counts retrieved 2026-10-29). 23,298 of them (16.2%) were published from 2020 onward, and the busiest period so far is 2010-2019 with 44,656 records.
Reviews account for 10,440 records (7.3%) and meta-analyses for 839. Randomized controlled trials number 7,920 (5.5%) as a share of all records on the topic.
Show the data
| Period | Records |
|---|---|
| through 1999 | 43,859 |
| 2000-2009 | 31,970 |
| 2010-2019 | 44,656 |
| 2020 onward | 23,298 |
Publication-type chart data
| Type | Records | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Reviews | 10,440 | 7.3% |
| Meta-analyses | 839 | 0.6% |
| Randomized controlled trials | 7,920 | 5.5% |
Method: PubMed query "Arousal"[MeSH Terms] with publication-type and date filters, retrieved 2026-10-29.
Reading the evidence in neuroscience
Neuroscience draws on tools with different strengths: cellular and animal work can manipulate circuits directly, while human imaging and electrophysiology observe the living brain at lower resolution. Small imaging studies are prone to false positives, and findings in animals do not always carry over to people. Clinical neurology and psychiatry rely on trials and cohort studies whose outcomes are often symptom scales. Check the species, the sample size, how the outcome was measured and whether results were replicated.
Evidence from open-access studies
These open-access studies come from PubMed’s best-match results for this heading (papers whose main topic it is), ranked here by citation count, with one recent addition. Each abstract is reproduced in full under its recorded open licence so that you can read the authors’ own words. They illustrate the literature; they are not a systematic summary of it. Citation counts measure attention, not reliability or clinical benefit.
| Study / authors | Year | Source label / design | Europe PMC citations | Licence / source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cortical Contributions to Attentional Orienting and Response Cancellation in Action Stopping | 2026 | Research article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 3 | cc by PMID 42704230 · DOI · PMC13548964 |
| Fluctuations in arousal reflect latent state transitions that facilitate behavioural optimization | 2026 | Research article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 2 | cc by PMID 42557479 · DOI · PMC13590411 |
| The Independent and Combined Roles of Attentional and Interpretative Biases in Antisocial Behavior, Trait Aggression and Aggressive Responses Under Provocation | 2026 | Research article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 2 | cc by PMID 42289844 · DOI · PMC13265843 |
Cortical Contributions to Attentional Orienting and Response Cancellation in Action Stopping [1]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- Action cancellation involves the termination of planned or ongoing movement, likely initiated in the cortex by the pre-supplementary motor area (preSMA) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG).
- Closing excerpt
- These findings advance understanding of some of the neurophysiological dynamics involved in action cancellation and highlight the utility of combining fNIRS with EMG in this domain.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (203 words)
Action cancellation involves the termination of planned or ongoing movement, likely initiated in the cortex by the pre-supplementary motor area (preSMA) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). It is frequently examined using the stop-signal task; electromyography (EMG) studies have shown action cancellation (in stop trials) can involve the partial activation of the responding muscles, which does not result in an overt behavioral response. The neural correlates of these partial responses are not well understood. Here, we combined functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and EMG to examine the neural correlates of terminated actions (partial responses) in a response- and stimulus-selective stop signal task, controlling for attentional confounds by comparing neural activity in stop and ignore trials. fNIRS analyses revealed increased preSMA activity in successful stop compared to ignore trials, but no such differences in the IFG, consistent with postulations that the preSMA is involved uniquely in action cancellation, while the IFG responds generically to unexpected stimuli. Critically, preSMA activity was greater in trials without partial muscle activation, potentially due to proactive inhibitory processes pre-emptively suppressing motor output in these trials. These findings advance understanding of some of the neurophysiological dynamics involved in action cancellation and highlight the utility of combining fNIRS with EMG in this domain.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 42704230 · DOI · PMC13548964
Fluctuations in arousal reflect latent state transitions that facilitate behavioural optimization [2]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- People are often faced with surprising events that defy expectations.
- Closing excerpt
- Our findings support the theory that locus coeruleus/norepinephrine-linked arousal systems optimize behaviour by signalling environmental transitions to facilitate rapid adjustments of mental context.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (160 words)
People are often faced with surprising events that defy expectations. Such events elicit transient activity in the locus coeruleus/norepinephrine system and elevation of peripheral arousal markers including pupil dilation and a late positive peak in stimulus evoked EEG response, the P300, but the function of these signals remains unclear. We propose that they reflect latent state transitions that dynamically control the mental context governing learning and perception. We tested and confirmed five preregistered predictions of this theory using EEG and pupil measurements collected from people performing a colour prediction and reproduction task. Task-induced latent state transitions elicited pupil dilation and amplified event-related potentials including the P3a component of the P300. These EEG and pupil measures related to behavioural signatures of latent state updating, including reduced bias and bidirectional adjustment of learning, both across trials and across individuals. Our findings support the theory that locus coeruleus/norepinephrine-linked arousal systems optimize behaviour by signalling environmental transitions to facilitate rapid adjustments of mental context.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 42557479 · DOI · PMC13590411
The Independent and Combined Roles of Attentional and Interpretative Biases in Antisocial Behavior, Trait Aggression and Aggressive Responses Under Provocation [3]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- Aggressive behavior has been linked to biases in social information processing, including heightened attention to threat and hostile interpretations of ambiguous social cues.
- Closing excerpt
- These findings support social information-processing models proposing that multiple cognitive biases jointly contribute to aggression and highlight the importance of considering situational provocation and outcome modality when examining cognitive risk factors for aggressive behavior and preventive cognitive interventions in at risk populations.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (219 words)
Aggressive behavior has been linked to biases in social information processing, including heightened attention to threat and hostile interpretations of ambiguous social cues. The extent to which attention and interpretational biases uniquely or jointly contribute to aggression under provocation remains unclear. The present study investigated the effects of attentional bias toward angry faces and hostile interpretation bias on aggression using both self-report and behavioral measures in a non-clinical sample. Participants (n = 67) completed an emotional attentional blink task and a hostile interpretation bias measure, alongside self-report indices of aggression and antisocial behavior, and an experimental measure of provoked aggression. Hostile interpretation bias was positively associated with self-reported aggression and antisocial tendencies, whereas attentional bias toward angry faces was selectively associated with behavioral aggression. Critically, these cognitive biases were examined as potentially independent, overlapping, or interactive contributors to aggression under provocation, and attentional and interpretation biases interacted to predict aggressive behavior under conditions of high provocation, such that individuals high in both biases displayed the greatest levels of aggression. No interaction effects were observed for self-reported outcomes. These findings support social information-processing models proposing that multiple cognitive biases jointly contribute to aggression and highlight the importance of considering situational provocation and outcome modality when examining cognitive risk factors for aggressive behavior and preventive cognitive interventions in at risk populations.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 42289844 · DOI · PMC13265843
Key reviews and meta-analyses
The most cited review-type papers among PubMed’s best-match results for this heading, listed with bibliographic details only. Follow the links for the full text and access terms.
- Research article Threat-related attentional bias in anxious and nonanxious individuals: a meta-analytic study [4]
- Research article The influence of sleep quality, sleep duration and sleepiness on school performance in children and adolescents: A meta-analytic review [5]
- Research article A meta-analysis of the impact of short-term sleep deprivation on cognitive variables [6]
- Research article Dealing with feeling: a meta-analysis of the effectiveness of strategies derived from the process model of emotion regulation [7]
- Research article Pseudoneglect: a review and meta-analysis of performance factors in line bisection tasks [8]
- Research article The effect of exercise-induced arousal on cognitive task performance: a meta-regression analysis [9]
References
- Kemp SA, Salomoni S, Bazin PL, Pash L, St George RJ, Hinder MR. Cortical Contributions to Attentional Orienting and Response Cancellation in Action Stopping. . 2026. PMID 42704230 · DOI · PMC13548964
- Li T, Marble H, Chen T, Razmi N, Nassar MR. Fluctuations in arousal reflect latent state transitions that facilitate behavioural optimization. . 2026. PMID 42557479 · DOI · PMC13590411
- Puzzo I, Hamid-Saifullah A, Cantarella S, Fieldwalker A, Aldridge-Waddon L, Kumari V. The Independent and Combined Roles of Attentional and Interpretative Biases in Antisocial Behavior, Trait Aggression and Aggressive Responses Under Provocation. . 2026. PMID 42289844 · DOI · PMC13265843
- Bar-Haim Y, Lamy D, Pergamin L, Bakermans-Kranenburg MJ, van IJzendoorn MH. Threat-related attentional bias in anxious and nonanxious individuals: a meta-analytic study. Psychol Bull. 2007. PMID 17201568 · DOI
- Dewald JF, Meijer AM, Oort FJ, Kerkhof GA, Bögels SM. The influence of sleep quality, sleep duration and sleepiness on school performance in children and adolescents: A meta-analytic review. Sleep Med Rev. 2010. PMID 20093054 · DOI
- Lim J, Dinges DF. A meta-analysis of the impact of short-term sleep deprivation on cognitive variables. Psychol Bull. 2010. PMID 20438143 · DOI · PMC3290659
- Webb TL, Miles E, Sheeran P. Dealing with feeling: a meta-analysis of the effectiveness of strategies derived from the process model of emotion regulation. Psychol Bull. 2012. PMID 22582737 · DOI
- Jewell G, McCourt ME. Pseudoneglect: a review and meta-analysis of performance factors in line bisection tasks. Neuropsychologia. 2000. PMID 10617294 · DOI
- Lambourne K, Tomporowski P. The effect of exercise-induced arousal on cognitive task performance: a meta-regression analysis. Brain Res. 2010. PMID 20381468 · DOI
About this article
- Sources
- NLM Medical Subject Headings (definition, synonyms); NCBI PubMed (counts, identifiers); Europe PMC (open-access abstracts and citation counts).
- Verification
- Every reference was resolved against PubMed on 2026-10-31; title, year and DOI matched.
- Review state
- automated source verified; no human expert review has been recorded yet.
- Version
- 1, last updated 2026-10-29.
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Evidence strength
EvidenceHelix's computed view of the study designs behind this topic: how common meta-analyses, randomized trials and reviews are, how recent the literature is, and a plain-language reading. It describes the design mix of the literature. It is not a quality appraisal of any study, and it is not medical advice.