Sustained brain activation supporting stop‐signal task performance

Abstract

Stop-signal paradigms operationalize a basic test of goal-directed behaviour whereby an overarching stop goal that is performed intermittently must be maintained throughout ongoing performance of a reaction time go task (go goal). Previous studies of sustained brain activation during stop-signal task performance in humans did not observe activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) that, in concert with the parietal cortex, is known to subserve goal maintenance. Here we explored the hypothesis that a DLPFC and parietal network has a key role in supporting ongoing stop-signal task performance. We used a blocked functional magnetic resonance imaging design that included blocks of trials containing typical stop-signal paradigm stimuli that were performed under three conditions: Stop condition, which required reaction time responding to go stimuli and inhibition of cued responses upon presentation of a stop signal; Go condition, identical except that the tone was ignored; and Passive condition, which required only quiescent attention to stimuli. We found that, whereas a distributed corticothalamic network was more active in Stop compared with Go, only the right DLPFC and bilateral parietal cortex survived after masking that contrast with Stop compared with Passive. These findings indicate that sustained activation of a right dominant frontoparietal network supports stop goal processes during ongoing performance of the stop-signal task.

The Role of the Frontal and Parietal Cortex in Proactive and Reactive Inhibitory Control: A Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Study

“…Existing studies have suggested that the effect of tDCS is performance dependent, with a stronger effect for participants with a lower initial performance level (Hsu et al, 2014;Hughes et al, 2014;Jones & Berryhill, 2012). Our study did not provide strong support for this observation, probably because of the small sample size and narrow distribution of performance.…”

“…Some studies found stronger activations in the right IPL, including the angular gyrus (AG) and supramarginal gyrus, for stop trials than go trials in the SST (Hughes et al, 2014;Congdon et al, 2010;Aron & Poldrack, 2006) and for no-go trials than go trials in the go/no-go task (Menon, Adleman, White, Glover, & Reiss, 2001). In addition, greater activation in the right IPL was associated with shorter SSRT (White et al, 2014).…”

Trait impulsivity components correlate differently with proactive and reactive control

“…The left IPL may be involved in representing and comparing conflict information to serve the proactive goal. Attention impulsiveness was associated with the right DLPFC, a region that has been previously found to be activated during the Stroop task, the stop-signal task, and the Go/NoGo task [39]. Activation of the right DLPFC plays important roles in sustained attention [40], especially attention selection in an inteference information context [41] and during response inhibition [42].…”

Effects of prefrontal activity during the preparatory period on success or failure of response inhibition in the stop-signal task

“…Thus, response inhibition depends on the relative completion time of these two processes [1]. Previous studies have reported that the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG), the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the presupplementary motor area, the intraparietal sulcus, and the subthalamic nucleus mediate response inhibition [2,3]. Chikazoe et al [4] studied the contribution of preparatory cortical activity toward response inhibition with a modified SST that involved several preparatory conditions that accounted for preparation cost.…”