Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Physiology and Neuroscience Program, Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia.
Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford University, Oxford OX1 3UD, UK.
Prog Neurobiol. 2024 Oct;241:102671. doi: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2024.102671. Epub 2024 Oct 5.
Executive control of behaviour entails keeping a fine balance between response execution and action inhibition. The most anterior part of the prefrontal cortex (frontopolar cortex) is highly developed in anthropoids; however, no previous study has examined its essential (indispensable) role in regulating the interplay between action execution and inhibition. In this cross-species study, we examine the performance of humans and macaque monkeys in the context of a stop-signal task and then assess the consequence of selective and bilateral damage to frontopolar cortex on monkeys' behaviour. Humans and monkeys showed significant within-session practice-related adjustments in both response execution (increase in response time (RT) and decrease in response variabilities) and action inhibition (enhanced inhibition). Furthermore, both species expressed context-dependent (post-error and post-stop) behavioral adjustments. In post-lesion testing, frontopolar-damaged monkeys had a longer RT and lower percentage of timeout trials, compared to their pre-lesion performance. The practice-related changes in mean RT and in RT variability were significantly heightened in frontopolar-damaged monkeys. They also showed attenuated post-error, but exaggerated post-stop, behavioural adjustments. Importantly, frontopolar damage had no significant effects on monkeys' inhibition ability. Our findings indicate that frontopolar cortex plays a critical role in allocation of control to response execution, but not action inhibition.
行为的执行控制需要在反应执行和动作抑制之间保持精细的平衡。灵长类动物的前额皮质最前部（额极皮质）高度发达；然而，以前没有研究检查过它在调节动作执行和抑制之间相互作用方面的基本（不可或缺）作用。在这项跨物种研究中，我们检查了人类和猕猴在停止信号任务背景下的表现，然后评估了选择性和双侧额极皮质损伤对猴子行为的后果。人类和猴子在反应执行（反应时间增加和反应变异性降低）和动作抑制（抑制增强）方面都表现出明显的与会话相关的实践调整。此外，两种物种都表现出上下文相关（错误后和停止后）的行为调整。在损伤后测试中，与损伤前相比，额极损伤的猴子的反应时间更长，超时试验的百分比更低。与损伤前相比，额极损伤的猴子的平均反应时间和反应变异性的实践相关变化明显升高。它们还表现出减弱的错误后，但夸大的停止后行为调整。重要的是，额极损伤对猴子的抑制能力没有显著影响。我们的发现表明，额极皮质在将控制分配给反应执行方面起着关键作用，但在动作抑制方面不起作用。
