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Visual salience of the stop signal affects the neuronal dynamics of controlled inhibition

Pierpaolo Pani1, Franco Giarrocco2,3, Margherita Giamundo2

  • 1Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy. pierpaolo.pani@uniroma1.it.

Scientific Reports
|September 26, 2018
PubMed

Insights

Perceptual demands on stop-signals impact movement inhibition. Less noticeable stop-signals impair inhibitory performance and alter neural activity in the dorsal premotor cortex (PMd).

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Motor Control

Background:

  • The countermanding task, or stop-signal task, is crucial for studying voluntary movement control and the suppression of actions.
  • Previous research using this task in monkeys implicated the dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) in motor control.
  • It remains unclear how the perceptual qualities of stop-signals influence inhibitory performance and the associated neural mechanisms.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the effect of varying stop-signal salience on inhibitory performance in a countermanding task.
  • To examine the underlying neuronal correlates in the dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) associated with modulated stop-signal perception.

Main Methods:

  • Multi-unit activity (MUA) was recorded from the PMd of two male monkeys.
  • Monkeys performed a countermanding task where the salience of stop-signals was manipulated.
  • Behavioral inhibitory performance and neuronal activity were analyzed in relation to stop-signal salience.

Main Results:

  • Inhibitory performance was significantly impaired when stop-signals were less salient, consistent with human studies.
  • Neuronal activity in PMd showed delayed onset and reduced dynamic changes in response to less salient stop-signals.
  • This suggests a less efficient inhibitory command impacting the neural dynamics of movement generation.

Conclusions:

  • The perceptual salience of stop-signals critically affects the ability to inhibit voluntary movements.
  • Neural processing within the dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) adapts to varying levels of stop-signal detectability.
  • These findings provide insights into the neural basis of inhibitory control and its modulation by perceptual factors.

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