Non-selective inhibition of inappropriate motor-tendencies during response-conflict by a fronto-subthalamic mechanism
Abstract
To effectively interact with their environment, humans must often select actions from multiple incompatible options. Existing theories propose that during motoric response-conflict, inappropriate motor activity is actively (and perhaps non-selectively) suppressed by an inhibitory fronto-basal ganglia mechanism. We here tested this theory across three experiments. First, using scalp-EEG, we found that both outright action-stopping and response-conflict during action-selection invoke low-frequency activity of a common fronto-central source, whose activity relates to trial-by-trial behavioral indices of inhibition in both tasks. Second, using simultaneous intracranial recordings from the basal ganglia and motor cortex, we found that response-conflict increases the influence of the subthalamic nucleus on M1-representations of incorrect response-tendencies. Finally, using transcranial magnetic stimulation, we found that during the same time period when conflict-related STN-to-M1 communication is increased, cortico-spinal excitability is broadly suppressed. Together, these findings demonstrate that fronto-BG networks buttress action-selection under response-conflict by rapidly and non-selectively net-inhibiting inappropriate motor tendencies.
Data availability
The experimental code, data, and analysis routines underlying this research can be found on the Open Science Framework at the following URL: https://osf.io/k3ypt/.
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Data from: Non-selective inhibition of inappropriate motor-tendencies during response-conflict by a fronto-subthalamic mechanismOpen Science Framework, osf.io/k3ypt.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R01 NS102201)
- Jan R Wessel
National Science Foundation (CAREER 1752355)
- Jan R Wessel
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Human subjects: Informed consent was collected from all subjects and all procedures were approved by the local ethics committee at the University of Iowa (IRB #201511709, IRB # 201402720, IRB #201612707).
Copyright
© 2019, Wessel et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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