Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
J Cogn Neurosci. 2011 Feb;23(2):382-90. doi: 10.1162/jocn.2010.21444. Epub 2010 Feb 22.
The presupplementary motor area (pre-SMA) is considered key in contributing to voluntary action selection during response conflict. Here we test whether individual differences in the ability to select appropriate actions in the face of strong (conscious) and weak (virtually unconscious) distracting alternatives are related to individual variability in pre-SMA anatomy. To this end, we scanned 58 participants, who performed a masked priming task in which conflicting response tendencies were elicited either consciously (through primes that were weakly masked) or virtually unconsciously (strongly masked primes), with structural magnetic resonance imaging. Voxel-based morphometry revealed that individual differences in pre-SMA gray-matter density are related to subjects' ability to voluntary select the correct action in the face of conflict, irrespective of the awareness level of conflict-inducing stimuli. These results link structural anatomy to individual differences in cognitive control ability, and provide support for the role of the pre-SMA in the selection of appropriate actions in situations of response conflict. Furthermore, these results suggest that flexible and voluntary behavior requires efficiently dealing with competing response tendencies, even those that are activated automatically and unconsciously.
补充运动区（pre-SMA）被认为是在响应冲突期间对自愿选择行为做出贡献的关键。在这里，我们测试了在面对强烈（有意识）和弱（几乎无意识）干扰替代方案时选择适当行为的能力的个体差异是否与 pre-SMA 解剖结构的个体变异性有关。为此，我们对 58 名参与者进行了扫描，他们在一项掩蔽启动任务中进行了操作，在该任务中，通过弱掩蔽（通过弱掩蔽的启动）或几乎无意识（强掩蔽的启动）引发冲突的反应倾向，同时进行结构磁共振成像。体素基形态测量学显示，pre-SMA 灰质密度的个体差异与参与者在面对冲突时自愿选择正确行为的能力有关，而与引起冲突的刺激的意识水平无关。这些结果将结构解剖学与认知控制能力的个体差异联系起来，并为 pre-SMA 在响应冲突情况下选择适当行为的作用提供了支持。此外，这些结果表明，灵活和自愿的行为需要有效地处理竞争的反应倾向，即使是那些自动和无意识激活的反应倾向。
