The Neurophysiology of Response Competition: Motor Cortex Activation and Inhibition following Subliminal Response Priming

Some widely used tasks in cognitive neuroscience depend on the induction of a response conflict between choice alternatives, involving partial activation of the incorrect response before the correct response is emitted. Although such “conflict tasks” are often used to investigate frontal-lobe-based conflict-monitoring processes, it is not known how response competition evolves in the motor cortex. To investigate the dynamics of motor cortex activation during response competition, we used a subliminal priming task that induced response competition while bypassing preresponse stage processing conflict. Analyses of movement-related EEG potentials supported an interaction between competing responses characterized by reciprocal inhibition. Inhibitory interactions between response channels contribute to the resolution of response conflict. However, the reciprocal inhibition at motor cortex level seemed to operate independent of higher level conflict-monitoring processes, which were relatively insensitive to response conflict induced by subliminal priming. These results elucidate how response conflict causes interference as well as the conditions under which frontal-lobe-based interference control processes are engaged.

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Conflict Monitoring Across the Life Span

Journal of Psychophysiology ◽

10.1027/0269-8803/a000120 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 28 (3) ◽

pp. 124-135 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Daniela Czernochowski

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Life Span ◽

Age Groups ◽

Conflict Detection ◽

Response Conflict ◽

Conflict Monitoring ◽

Subsequent Performance ◽

Additional Control ◽

Performance Response ◽

Conflict Detection And Resolution

Errors can play a major role for optimizing subsequent performance: Response conflict associated with (near) errors signals the need to recruit additional control resources to minimize future conflict. However, so far it remains open whether children and older adults also adjust their performance as a function of preceding response conflict. To examine the life span development of conflict detection and resolution, response conflict was elicited during a task-switching paradigm. Electrophysiological correlates of conflict detection for correct and incorrect responses and behavioral indices of post-error adjustments were assessed while participants in four age groups were asked to focus on either speed or accuracy. Despite difficulties in resolving response conflict, the ability to detect response conflict as indexed by the Ne/ERN component was expected to mature early and be preserved in older adults. As predicted, reliable Ne/ERN peaks were detected across age groups. However, only for adults Ne/ERN amplitudes associated with errors were larger compared to Nc/CRN amplitudes for correct trials under accuracy instructions, suggesting an ongoing maturation in the ability to differentiate levels of response conflict. Behavioral interference costs were considerable in both children and older adults. Performance for children and older adults deteriorated rather than improved following errors, in line with intact conflict detection, but impaired conflict resolution. Thus, participants in all age groups were able to detect response conflict, but only young adults successfully avoided subsequent conflict by up-regulating control.

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Time for Action: Neural Basis of the Costs and Benefits of Temporal Predictability for Competing Response Choices

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_01795 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-17

Author(s):

Inga Korolczuk ◽

Boris Burle ◽

Jennifer T. Coull ◽

Kamila Śmigasiewicz

Keyword(s):

Motor Cortex ◽

Onset Time ◽

Incorrect Response ◽

Response Conflict ◽

Cortical Inhibition ◽

Costs And Benefits ◽

Neural Basis ◽

Response Hand ◽

Temporal Predictability ◽

Choice Complexity

Abstract The brain can anticipate the time of imminent events to optimize sensorimotor processing. Yet, there can be behavioral costs of temporal predictability under situations of response conflict. Here, we sought to identify the neural basis of these costs and benefits by examining motor control processes in a combined electroencephalography–EMG study. We recorded electrophysiological markers of response activation and inhibition over motor cortex when the onset-time of visual targets could be predicted, or not, and when responses necessitated conflict resolution, or not. If stimuli were temporally predictable but evoked conflicting responses, we observed increased intertrial consistency in the delta range over the motor cortex involved in response implementation, perhaps reflecting increased response difficulty. More importantly, temporal predictability differentially modulated motor cortex activity as a function of response conflict before the response was even initiated. This effect occurred in the hemisphere ipsilateral to the response, which is involved in inhibiting unwanted actions. If target features all triggered the same response, temporal predictability increased cortical inhibition of the incorrect response hand. Conversely, if different target features triggered two conflicting responses, temporal predictability decreased inhibition of the incorrect, yet prepotent, response. This dissociation reconciles the well-established behavioral benefits of temporal predictability for nonconflicting responses as well as its costs for conflicting ones by providing an elegant mechanism that operates selectively over the motor cortex involved in suppressing inappropriate actions just before response initiation. Taken together, our results demonstrate that temporal information differentially guides motor activity depending on response choice complexity.

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Frontal lobe functioning during a simple response conflict task in first-episode psychosis and its relationship to treatment response

Brain Imaging and Behavior ◽

10.1007/s11682-018-9876-2 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 541-553 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Keith M. Shafritz ◽

Toshikazu Ikuta ◽

Allison Greene ◽

Delbert G. Robinson ◽

Juan Gallego ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Treatment Response ◽

Frontal Lobe ◽

First Episode Psychosis ◽

Response Conflict ◽

First Episode ◽

Conflict Task ◽

Episode Psychosis ◽

Frontal Lobe Functioning

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The truth-telling motor cortex: Response competition in M1 discloses deceptive behaviour

Biological Psychology ◽

10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.12.019 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 89 (2) ◽

pp. 495-502 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Aviad A. Hadar ◽

Stergios Makris ◽

Kielan Yarrow

Keyword(s):

Motor Cortex ◽

Response Competition ◽

Truth Telling

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Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation of the motor cortex induces opposite modulation of reciprocal inhibition in wrist extensor and flexor

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00249.2013 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 112 (6) ◽

pp. 1505-1515 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Alexandra Lackmy-Vallée ◽

Wanalee Klomjai ◽

Bernard Bussel ◽

Rose Katz ◽

Nicolas Roche

Keyword(s):

Motor Cortex ◽

Direct Current ◽

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation ◽

Reciprocal Inhibition ◽

Anodal Tdcs ◽

Direct Current Stimulation ◽

Wrist Extensor ◽

Hand Motor Area ◽

Opposing Effects ◽

Wrist Flexors

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is used as a noninvasive tool to modulate brain excitability in humans. Recently, several studies have demonstrated that tDCS applied over the motor cortex also modulates spinal neural network excitability and therefore can be used to explore the corticospinal control acting on spinal neurons. Previously, we showed that reciprocal inhibition directed to wrist flexor motoneurons is enhanced during contralateral anodal tDCS, but it is likely that the corticospinal control acting on spinal networks controlling wrist flexors and extensors is not similar. The primary aim of the study was to explore the effects of anodal tDCS on reciprocal inhibition directed to wrist extensor motoneurons. To further examine the supraspinal control acting on the reciprocal inhibition between wrist flexors and extensors, we also explored the effects of the tDCS applied to the ipsilateral hand motor area. In healthy volunteers, we tested the effects induced by sham and anodal tDCS on reciprocal inhibition pathways innervating wrist muscles. Reciprocal inhibition directed from flexor to extensor muscles and the reverse situation, i.e., reciprocal inhibition, directed from extensors to flexors were studied in parallel with the H reflex technique. Our main finding was that contralateral anodal tDCS induces opposing effects on reciprocal inhibition: it decreases reciprocal inhibition directed from flexors to extensors, but it increases reciprocal inhibition directed from extensors to flexors. The functional result of these opposite effects on reciprocal inhibition seems to favor wrist extension excitability, suggesting an asymmetric descending control onto the interneurons that mediate reciprocal inhibition.

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Hypnosis decouples cognitive control from conflict monitoring processes of the frontal lobe

NeuroImage ◽

10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.05.002 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 27 (4) ◽

pp. 969-978 ◽

Cited By ~ 140

Author(s):

Tobias Egner ◽

Graham Jamieson ◽

John Gruzelier

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Control ◽

Frontal Lobe ◽

Conflict Monitoring

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Response Preparation With Reliable Cues Decreases Response Competition in the Flanker Task

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000411 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 65 (5) ◽

pp. 286-296 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Peter Wühr ◽

Christian Frings ◽

Herbert Heuer

Keyword(s):

Target Stimulus ◽

Flanker Task ◽

Response Competition ◽

Stimulus Display ◽

Response Conflict ◽

Choice Response ◽

Response Preparation ◽

Stimulus Processing ◽

Actual Stimulus ◽

Response Task

Abstract. We tested the hypothesis that selective response preparation, based on reliable response cues, reduces response conflict in an Eriksen flanker task. Previous studies of this issue produced inconclusive results because presenting an always valid response cue before the stimulus display turns a choice-response task into a simple-response task, in which full processing of the actual stimulus display is no longer necessary. We conducted two experiments in which we matched stimulus processing in conditions without cues and with reliable cues as far as possible. In both experiments, we presented a nogo target stimulus in 25% of the trials. The different cueing conditions were presented in separate blocks in Experiment 1 but mixed within blocks in Experiment 2. The most important result was the reduction of response conflict as induced by incompatible flanker stimuli in both experiments with reliable response cues. This finding supports the notion of a negative preparation-interference relationship.

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