Abstract
To head rather than heed to temptations is easier said than done. Since tempting actions are often contextually inappropriate, selective suppression is invoked to inhibit such actions. Thus far, laboratory tasks have not been very successful in highlighting these processes. We suggest that this is for three reasons. First, it is important to dissociate between an early susceptibility to making stimulus-driven impulsive but erroneous actions, and the subsequent selective suppression of these impulses that facilitates the selection of the correct action. Second, studies have focused on mean or median reaction times (RT), which conceals the temporal dynamics of action control. Third, studies have focused on group means, while considering individual differences as a source of error variance. Here, we present an overview of recent behavioral and imaging studies that overcame these limitations by analyzing RT distributions. As will become clear, this approach has revealed variations in inhibitory control over impulsive actions as a function of task instructions, conflict probability, and between-trial adjustments (following conflict or following an error trial) that are hidden if mean RTs are analyzed. Next, we discuss a selection of behavioral as well as imaging studies to illustrate that individual differences are meaningful and help understand selective suppression during action selection within samples of young and healthy individuals, but also within clinical samples of patients diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder or Parkinson's disease.
Highlights
Impulsive activation and selective suppression of actions during conflict “Look before you leap” and “haste makes waste” are just two examples of every-day expressions – not to say clichés – that point to the precarious balance between reacting impulsively on the one hand versus carefully weighing your response options before acting
This useful dissociation is illustrated by an overview of behavioral studies that helped identify experimental variables
A merit of the activation–suppression model is the functional dissociation between the susceptibility of making fast impulsive actions, and subsequent cognitive control that is engaged to keep unwanted action activation in check to facilitate the selection of the correct action
Summary
Wery P.M. van denWildenberg1*, Scott A.Wylie, Birte U. The activation–suppression model generates two specific individual parameters that represent the temporal aspects of (1) the susceptibility to make fast impulsive reactions, and (2) the proficiency of selective inhibitory control over these unwanted actions to facilitate the selection of the appropriate response. This useful dissociation is illustrated by an overview of behavioral studies that helped identify experimental variables Frontiers in Human Neuroscience www.frontiersin.org van den Wildenberg et al
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