Department of Psychology.
J Exp Psychol Gen. 2014 Feb;143(1):56-61. doi: 10.1037/a0031497. Epub 2013 Jan 14.
Much research on response inhibition has focused on a consciously triggered variety (i.e., outright stopping of action). However, recent studies have shown that response inhibition can also be triggered unconsciously. For example, van Gaal, Ridderinkhof, Scholte, and Lamme (2010) showed that an unconscious no-go prime slowed down ongoing behavior, at least when outright stopping was sometimes required (i.e., in an executive setting). Here we replicated that result but also went further by including a condition with no executive setting. Then there was no slowing following a no-go prime. These results support the hypothesis that an executive setting is necessary for unconsciously triggered inhibition. We speculate that this arises from the fact that when the context includes outright stopping, the brain network for response inhibition is primed, and it can be triggered by the unconscious prime. The result has theoretical implications for the distinction between conscious and unconscious response inhibition and also clinical implications for how to train response inhibition so that it is instantiated automatically.
许多关于反应抑制的研究都集中在一种有意识触发的反应抑制（即直接停止行动）上。然而，最近的研究表明，反应抑制也可以无意识地触发。例如，van Gaal、Ridderinkhof、Scholte 和 Lamme（2010）表明，无意识的禁止提示会减缓正在进行的行为，至少在有时需要直接停止（即在执行环境中）时是这样。在这里，我们复制了这个结果，并且更进一步，包括了一个没有执行环境的条件。在禁止提示之后没有出现减缓。这些结果支持了一个假设，即执行环境对于无意识触发的抑制是必要的。我们推测，这是因为当环境包括直接停止时，大脑的反应抑制网络被激活，并且可以被无意识的提示触发。这个结果对区分有意识和无意识的反应抑制具有理论意义，对如何训练反应抑制以使它自动实现也具有临床意义。
