Anterior specificity in cortical activity to response inhibition was identified.
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Methodological development of a compound contrast methodology optimising data usage.
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Exploratory demonstration of lateralised subcortical action control pathways.
Abstract
Is motor response inhibition supported by a specialised neuronal inhibitory control mechanism, or by a more general system of action updating? This pre-registered study employed a context-cueing paradigm requiring both inhibitory and non-inhibitory action updating in combination with functional magnetic resonance imaging to test the specificity of responses under different updating conditions, including the cancellation of actions. Cortical regions of activity were found to be common to multiple forms of action updating. However, functional specificity during response inhibition was observed in the anterior right inferior frontal gyrus. In addition, fronto-subcortical activity was explored using a novel contrast method. These exploratory results indicate that the specificity for response inhibition observed in right prefrontal cortex continued downstream and was observed in right hemisphere subcortical activity, while left hemisphere activity was associated with right-hand response execution. Overall, our findings reveal both common and distinct correlates of response inhibition in prefrontal cortex, with exploratory analyses supporting putative models of subcortical pathways and extending them through the demonstration of lateralisation.
Keywords
Response inhibition
Response execution
Action control
Action updating
Basal ganglia
Action pathways
Abbreviations
pre-SMA
pre-supplementary motor area
IFG
inferior frontal gyrus
BG
basal ganglia
STR
striatum
GPe
globus pallidus externa
GPi
globus pallidus interna
SN
substantia nigra
STN
subthalamic nucleus
THAL
thalamus
ROI
region of interest
%BOLD
percent change in blood oxygen level dependent signal