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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 10, 2025

Online Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Protocol for Measuring Cortical Physiology Associated with Response Inhibition
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Stopping Muscle Contractions and Relaxations during Action Inhibition Involves Global and Targeted Control Dependent

Jack De Havas1, Jaime Ibañez2,3, Hiroaki Gomi4

  • 1Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, United Kingdom j.havas.12@ucl.ac.uk.

The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience
|August 19, 2025
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Stop commands during action inhibition are global, affecting both active and passive muscles. This control is muscle-state specific, adjusting activity differently for contractions versus relaxations, with additional targeted control for contractions.

Keywords:
action inhibitionbasal gangliamotor controlmuscle relaxationpause-then-cancelstop signal task

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Motor Control
  • Human Physiology

Background:

  • The precise neural mechanisms controlling action inhibition, specifically the stopping of muscle contractions and relaxations, are not fully understood.
  • It remains debated whether central stop commands are targeted to specific muscles or exert global influence.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether stop commands during action inhibition act globally on both task-active and task-passive muscles.
  • To determine if global stop commands are muscle-state specific, differentiating between stopping contractions and relaxations.

Main Methods:

  • Three stop-signal task experiments were conducted with 54 human participants.
  • Electromyography (EMG) was used to detect stop-related muscle activity at the single-trial level.
  • Participants maintained baseline force and responded to Go signals, with stop signals instructing them to cease task-active responses.

Main Results:

  • Stop commands were found to influence both task-active and task-passive muscles, indicating global control.
  • Global control was muscle-state specific: activity decreased when stopping contractions and increased when stopping relaxations.
  • Stopping contractions showed more sustained suppression in task-active muscles than task-passive muscles, suggesting additional targeted control, which was absent when stopping relaxations.

Conclusions:

  • Action inhibition is mediated by global stop commands that are sensitive to muscle state.
  • These commands rapidly adjust muscle activity across the body, with additional targeted control for contracting, task-active muscles.
  • This dual control mechanism may explain the inhibition of complex real-world actions.