Open AccessMagnetoencephalographic signatures of right prefrontal cortex involvement in response inhibition
Author(s) -
Hege Maike A.,
Preissl Hubert,
Stingl Krunoslav T.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
human brain mapping
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.005
H-Index - 191
eISSN - 1097-0193
pISSN - 1065-9471
DOI - 10.1002/hbm.22546
Subject(s) - prefrontal cortex , neuroscience , sensory gating , dorsolateral prefrontal cortex , consumer neuroscience , psychology , magnetoencephalography , brain activity and meditation , gating , cognition , electroencephalography
The prefrontal cortex has a pivotal role in top‐down control of cognitive and sensory functions. In complex go‐nogo tasks, the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is considered to be important for guiding the response inhibition. However, little is known about the temporal dynamics and neurophysiological nature of this activity. To address this issue, we recorded magnetoencephalographic brain activity in 20 women during a visual go‐nogo task. The right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex showed an increase for the amplitude of the event‐related fields and an increase in induced alpha frequency band activity for nogo in comparison to go trials. The peak of this prefrontal activity preceded the mean reaction time of around 360 ms for go trials, and thus supports the proposed role of right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in gating the response inhibition and further suggests that right prefrontal alpha band activity might be involved in this gating. However, the results in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex were similar for both successful and unsuccessful response inhibition. In these conditions, we instead observed pre‐ and poststimulus differences in alpha band activity in occipital and central areas. Thus, successful response inhibition seemed to additionally depend on prestimulus anticipatory alpha desynchronization in sensory areas as it was reduced prior to unsuccessful response inhibition. In conclusion, we suggest a role for functional inhibition by alpha synchronization not only in sensory, but also in prefrontal areas. Hum Brain Mapp 35:5236–5248, 2014 . © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.