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Updated: May 8, 2026
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Online Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Protocol for Measuring Cortical Physiology Associated with Response Inhibition
Published on: February 8, 2018
Proactive selective response suppression is implemented via the basal ganglia
D S Adnan Majid1, Weidong Cai, Jody Corey-Bloom
1Department of Psychology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA.
Summary
People can selectively stop actions by preparing in advance, relying on basal ganglia pathways. This study provides evidence linking the striatum and pallidum to this crucial inhibitory control.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Motor Control
Background:
- Humans possess the ability to inhibit specific actions while allowing others to proceed.
- Proactive selective response suppression requires advance knowledge of which responses to inhibit.
- The neural basis for selective response suppression, particularly the role of the basal ganglia's indirect pathway, remains incompletely understood in humans.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the hypothesis that proactive selective response suppression involves the basal ganglia, specifically the inhibitory indirect pathway.
- To identify the neural correlates of proactive motor suppression and behavioral selectivity during response inhibition.
- To examine the impact of basal ganglia structural integrity on the ability to perform selective response suppression.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain activation during selective stopping tasks.
- Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to assess motor suppression.
- Analysis of striatal and pallidal volume in individuals with and without premanifest Huntington's disease.
Main Results:
- Activation in the striatum, pallidum, and frontal cortex correlated with the degree of proactive motor suppression.
- Increased striatal activation during selective stopping was associated with enhanced behavioral selectivity.
- Individuals with reduced striatal and pallidal volume (premanifest Huntington's disease) exhibited impaired proactive motor suppression and behavioral selectivity.
Conclusions:
- Stopping goals are proactively utilized to establish specific basal ganglia channels for implementing selective suppression.
- The findings provide significant functional evidence in humans for the role of the basal ganglia's inhibitory indirect pathway in selective response control.
- This research elucidates the neural mechanisms underlying inhibitory control and its disruption in neurodegenerative conditions affecting the basal ganglia.
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