Ernst Strüngmann Institute (ESI) for Neuroscience in Cooperation with Max Planck Society, Frankfurt, Germany; Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands
Arian Mobascher
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany
Motor inhibitory control implemented as response inhibition is an essential cognitive function required to dynamically adapt to rapidly changing environments. Despite over a decade of research on the neural mechanisms of response inhibition, it remains unclear, how exactly response inhibition is initiated and implemented. Using a multimodal MEG/fMRI approach in 59 subjects, our results reliably reveal that response inhibition is initiated by the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG) as a form of attention-independent top-down control that involves the modulation of beta-band activity. Furthermore, stopping performance was predicted by beta-band power, and beta-band connectivity was directed from rIFG to pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA), indicating rIFG’s dominance over pre-SMA. Thus, these results strongly support the hypothesis that rIFG initiates stopping, implemented by beta-band oscillations with potential to open up new ways of spatially localized oscillation-based interventions.
