Abstract
Background: Error awareness is essential to maintain an adaptive and goal-directed behavior and is supposed to rely on the activity of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). However, studies employing electrophysiological methods and functional resonance imaging (fMRI) do not allow to establish a causal relationship between error awareness and implicated brain structures.Objective: The study examined the causal relationship between DLPFC activity and error awareness in order to confirm the involvement of the right DLPFC in error awareness and to obtain temporal information about this process, namely when the activity of the right DLPFC is involved in error awareness.Methods: Three experiments with three different samples were conducted employing on-line Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). A paired-pulse and a single-pulse on-line TMS paradigm were employed respectively in Experiments 1 and 3, whereas in Experiment 2 a control test was conducted without TMS. In TMS experiments, the right DLPFC was stimulated, considering the left DLPFC and the Vertex as control sites.Results: Experiment 1 showed no effect of paired-pulse TMS over either right or left DLPFC on error awareness. In Experiment 3, independently from the time point during which TMS was delivered, results showed a significant effect of single-pulse TMS over the DLPFC on Stroop Awareness, without evidence for lateralization of the process.Conclusions: Results of the present study partially demonstrate the involvement of the DLPFC in error awareness.
Highlights
Error awareness is essential to maintain an adaptive and goal-directed behavior and is supposed to rely on the activity of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)
According to a recent study (Cieslik et al, 2013), the DLPFC can be divided into at least two subregions: an anterior subregion, more associated with attention and cognitive control, more related to error awareness, and a posterior subregion, more associated with working memory. Considering this complexity of the DLPFC, the methodology adopted by Harty et al (2014) does not allow establishing which part of the right DLPFC was really involved in error awareness
When the accuracy on No-go fell under 50%, the presentation of the word and interstimulus interval (ISI) were both set to 1,000 ms, whereas when the accuracy on No-go exceeded 60%, the presentation of the word and ISI were respectively set to 500 and 1,500 ms
Summary
Error awareness is essential to maintain an adaptive and goal-directed behavior and is supposed to rely on the activity of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Studies employing electrophysiological methods and functional resonance imaging (fMRI) do not allow to establish a causal relationship between error awareness and implicated brain structures
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