Perceptual uncertainty alternates top-down and bottom-up fronto-temporal network signaling during response inhibition

Response inhibition is a primary executive control function that allows the withholding of inappropriate responses, and requires appropriate perception of the external environment to achieve a behavioral goal. It remains unclear, however, how response inhibition is achieved when goal-relevant information involves perceptual uncertainty. Twenty-six human participants of both sexes performed a go/no-go task where visually presented random-dot motion stimuli involved perceptual uncertainties. The right inferior frontal cortex (rIFC) was involved in response inhibition, and the middle temporal (MT) region showed greater activity when dot motions involved less uncertainty. A neocortical temporal region in the superior temporal sulcus (STS) specifically showed greater activity during response inhibition in more perceptually certain trials. In this STS region, activity was greater when response inhibition was successful than when it failed. Directional effective connectivity analysis revealed that in more coherent trials, the MT and STS regions showed enhanced connectivity to the rIFC, whereas in less coherent trials, the signal direction was reversed. These results suggest that a reversible fronto-temporal functional network guides response inhibition under perceptual uncertainty, and in this network, perceptual information in the MT is converted to control information in the rIFC via STS, enabling achievement of response inhibition.