Department of Biosciences and Informatics, Keio University, Yokohama, 223-0061 Japan.
Research Center for Brain Communication, Kochi University of Technology, Kami, 782-8502 Japan.
J Neurosci. 2022 Jun 1;42(22):4567-4579. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2537-21.2022. Epub 2022 May 2.
Response inhibition is a primary executive control function that allows the withholding of inappropriate responses, and requires appropriate perception of the external environment to achieve a behavioral goal. It remains unclear, however, how response inhibition is achieved when goal-relevant information involves perceptual uncertainty. Twenty-six human participants of both sexes performed a go/no-go task where visually presented random-dot motion stimuli involved perceptual uncertainties. The right inferior frontal cortex (rIFC) was involved in response inhibition, and the middle temporal (MT) region showed greater activity when dot motions involved less uncertainty. A neocortical temporal region in the superior temporal sulcus (STS) specifically showed greater activity during response inhibition in more perceptually certain trials. In this STS region, activity was greater when response inhibition was successful than when it failed. Directional effective connectivity analysis revealed that, in more coherent trials, the MT and STS regions showed enhanced connectivity to the rIFC, whereas in less coherent trials, the signal direction was reversed. These results suggest that a reversible fronto-temporal functional network guides response inhibition and perceptual decision-making under perceptual uncertainty, and in this network, perceptual information in the MT is converted to control information in the rIFC via STS, enabling achievement of response inhibition. Response inhibition refers to withholding inappropriate behavior and is important for achieving goals. Often, however, decision must be made based on limited environmental evidence. We showed that successful response inhibition is guided by a neocortical temporal region that plays a hub role in converting perceived information coded in a posterior temporal region to control information coded in the PFC. Interestingly, when a perceived stimulus becomes more uncertain, the PFC supplements stimulus encoding in the temporal regions. Our results highlight fronto-temporal mechanisms of response inhibition in which conversion of stimulus-control information is regulated based on the uncertainty of environmental evidence.
反应抑制是一种主要的执行控制功能，它允许抑制不适当的反应，并需要适当感知外部环境以实现行为目标。然而，当目标相关信息涉及感知不确定性时，如何实现反应抑制尚不清楚。26 名男女参与者在执行一项 Go/No-Go 任务时，视觉呈现的随机点运动刺激涉及感知不确定性。右额下回（rIFC）参与反应抑制，当点运动涉及较少不确定性时，中颞（MT）区域显示出更大的活动。上颞沟（STS）中的新皮质颞区在更确定的试验中表现出更大的反应抑制活动。在这个 STS 区域，当反应抑制成功时，活动比失败时更大。定向有效连接分析显示，在更连贯的试验中，MT 和 STS 区域与 rIFC 显示出增强的连接，而在不连贯的试验中，信号方向相反。这些结果表明，一个可逆转的额颞功能网络指导着感知不确定性下的反应抑制和知觉决策，在这个网络中，MT 中的知觉信息通过 STS 转化为 rIFC 中的控制信息，从而实现反应抑制。反应抑制是指抑制不适当的行为，对于实现目标非常重要。然而，通常情况下，决策必须基于有限的环境证据做出。我们表明，成功的反应抑制是由一个新皮质颞区引导的，该区域在将后颞区编码的感知信息转换为 PFC 编码的控制信息方面发挥着枢纽作用。有趣的是，当感知到的刺激变得更加不确定时，PFC 会补充颞区的刺激编码。我们的研究结果强调了反应抑制的额颞机制，其中刺激-控制信息的转换是根据环境证据的不确定性来调节的。
