Abstract
This pre-registered experiment sought to uncover the temporal relationship between the inferior frontal cortex (IFC) and the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA) during stopping of an ongoing action. Both regions have previously been highlighted as being central to cognitive control of actions, particularly response inhibition. Here we tested which area is activated first during the stopping process using magnetoencephalography, before assessing the relative chronometry of each region using functionally localized transcranial magnetic stimulation. Both lines of evidence pointed towards simultaneous activity across both regions, suggesting that parallel, mutually interdependent processing may form the cortical basis of stopping. Additional exploratory analysis, however, provided weak evidence in support of previous suggestions that the pre-SMA may provide an ongoing drive of activity to the IFC.
Highlights
The process of stopping an ongoing action has become central to the study of cognitive control
The behavioural response collected inside the MEG can be summarized, at the group level, as follows: the mean (±s.d.) stop-signal reaction time (SSRT) was 210 (24) ms, the proportion stopped was 0.56 (0.09), stop signal delay (SSD) used was 202 (57) ms, reaction time on ‘Go’ trials was 428 (60) ms and the reaction time on failed ‘Stop’ trials was 386 (34) ms, which was shorter than the reaction time on ‘Go’ trials for all participants
It is noteworthy that mean differences in the data, based on the pre-registered contrasts, were all in the direction of pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA) activity being followed by the inferior frontal cortex (IFC), which would be broadly consistent with previous findings [5,21]; no conclusion can be drawn with respect to the current data as evidence for such directionality appears to be insubstantial relative to the levels of random variation within the sample
Summary
The process of stopping an ongoing action has become central to the study of cognitive control. The two cortical regions most often implicated in stopping are the inferior frontal cortex (IFC) and the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA) (for review, see [1,2,3]) In this pre-registered study, we aimed to establish the temporal and causal interplay between these two regions. Few studies have addressed this question, but one earlier study, on a single subject, has used intracranial recording to demonstrate that activity related to stopping in the pre-SMA can precede IFC activation [4]. This suggests that when stopping an ongoing action, information may be transmitted from the pre-SMA to the right IFC, and that the pre-SMA may, be the cortical source of the ‘Stop’ signal. Recent modelling work has suggested the primacy of the pre-SMA [5], this may relate to an ongoing drive when preparing to stop, as opposed to the active response to stop an action [6]
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