Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium.
Neuropsychologia. 2010 Mar;48(4):1144-59. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.12.020. Epub 2009 Dec 21.
We studied error monitoring in a human patient with unique implantation of depth electrodes in both the left dorsal cingulate gyrus and medial temporal lobe prior to surgery. The patient performed a speeded go/nogo task and made a substantial number of commission errors (false alarms). As predicted, intracranial Local Field Potentials (iLFPs) in dorsal anterior cingulate indexed the detection of errors, showing an early differential activity around motor execution for false alarms, relative to correct responses (either hits or correct inhibitions). More surprisingly, we found that the left amygdala also participated to error monitoring (although no emotional stimuli were used), but with a very different neurophysiological profile as compared with the dorsal cingulate cortex. Amygdala iLFPs showed a precise and reproducible temporal unfolding, characterized by an early monophasic response for correct hits around motor execution, which was delayed by approximately 300ms for errors (even though actual RTs were almost identical in these two conditions). Moreover, time-frequency analyses demonstrated a reliable and transient coupling in the theta band around motor execution between these two distant regions. Additional fMRI investigation in the same patient confirmed a differential involvement of the dorsal cingulate cortex vs. amygdala in error monitoring during this go/nogo task. Finally, these intracranial results for the left amygdala were replicated in a second patient with intracranial electrodes in the right amygdala. Altogether, these results suggest that the amygdala may register the motivational significance of motor actions on a trial-by-trial basis, while the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex may provide signals concerning failures of cognitive control and behavioral adjustment. More generally, these data shed new light on neural mechanisms underlying self-monitoring by showing that even "simple" motor actions recruit not only executive cognitive processes (in dorsal cingulate) but also affective processes (in amygdala).
我们研究了一位患者在手术前双侧背侧扣带回和内侧颞叶深部电极植入后的错误监控。患者执行了一个快速 Go/Nogo 任务，并犯了大量的误报错误（假警报）。正如预测的那样，背侧前扣带回的颅内局部场电位（iLFPs）反映了错误的检测，相对于正确反应（无论是命中还是正确抑制），在错误时显示出运动执行前后的早期差异活动。更令人惊讶的是，我们发现左杏仁核也参与了错误监控（尽管没有使用情绪刺激），但与背侧扣带回皮层相比，其神经生理特征非常不同。杏仁核 iLFPs 显示出精确且可重复的时间展开，其特征是在运动执行周围的正确命中时呈现早期的单相反应，而在错误时延迟约 300ms（尽管在这两种情况下实际 RT 几乎相同）。此外，时频分析表明，在这两个遥远的区域之间，围绕运动执行存在可靠且短暂的θ带耦合。在同一位患者中进行的额外 fMRI 研究证实，在这个 Go/Nogo 任务中，背侧扣带皮层与杏仁核在错误监控中存在差异参与。最后，在第二位右侧杏仁核颅内电极患者中复制了左侧杏仁核的这些颅内结果。总之，这些结果表明，杏仁核可能根据试次基础上的运动动作的动机意义进行登记，而背侧前扣带皮层可能提供关于认知控制和行为调整失败的信号。更一般地说，这些数据通过显示即使是“简单”的运动动作也不仅招募执行认知过程（在背侧扣带），而且还招募情感过程（在杏仁核），为自我监控的神经机制提供了新的视角。
