Department of Experimental Psychology, Regensburg University, Universitätsstr. 31, 93053 Regensburg, Germany.
Neuroimage. 2010 May 1;50(4):1599-605. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.01.095. Epub 2010 Feb 1.
A prominent function of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is to process conflict between competing response options. In this study, we investigated the role of conflict processing in a response-priming task in which manual responses were either validly or invalidly cued. Examining electrophysiological measurements of oscillatory brain activity on the source level, we found response priming to be related to a beta power decrease in the premotor cortex and conflict processing to be linked to a theta power increase in the ACC. In particular, correlation of oscillatory brain activities in the ACC and the premotor cortex showed that conflict processing reduces response priming by slowing response time in valid trials and lowering response errors in invalid trials. This relationship emerged on a between subjects level as well as within subjects, on a single trial level. These findings suggest that conflict processing in the ACC constrains the automatic priming process.
前扣带皮层（ACC）的一个突出功能是处理竞争反应选项之间的冲突。在这项研究中，我们调查了在一个反应启动任务中冲突处理的作用，在该任务中，手动反应要么是有效要么是无效的提示。通过检查源水平上的振荡脑活动的电生理测量，我们发现反应启动与运动前皮层中的β功率降低有关，而冲突处理与 ACC 中的θ功率增加有关。具体来说，在 ACC 和运动前皮层的振荡脑活动的相关性表明，冲突处理通过在有效试验中减慢反应时间和在无效试验中降低反应错误来减少反应启动。这种关系在被试间水平以及在单个试验水平上都存在。这些发现表明，ACC 中的冲突处理限制了自动启动过程。
