scholarly journals The Role of the Medial Frontal Cortex in Cognitive Control

Science ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 306 (5695) ◽  
pp. 443-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. R. Ridderinkhof
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Frontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Frontal Cortex

Top–Down Inhibitory Control Exerted by the Medial Frontal Cortex during Action Selection under Conflict

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (10) ◽  
pp. 1634-1648 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Duque ◽  
Etienne Olivier ◽  
Matthew Rushworth
Keyword(s):  
Frontal Cortex ◽  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Single Pulse ◽  
Medial Frontal Cortex ◽  
Button Press ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Motor Representation ◽  
Visuomotor Task ◽  
Response Alternatives

Top–down control is critical to select goal-directed actions in changeable environments, particularly when several conflicting options compete for selection. In humans, this control system is thought to involve an inhibitory mechanism that suppresses the motor representation of unwanted responses to favor selection of the most appropriate action. Here, we aimed to evaluate the role of a region of the medial frontal cortex, the pre-SMA, in this form of inhibition by using a double coil TMS protocol combining repetitive TMS (rTMS) over the pre-SMA and a single-pulse TMS over the primary motor cortex (M1) during a visuomotor task that required participants to choose between a left or right button press according to an imperative cue. M1 stimulation allowed us to assess changes in motor excitability related to selected and nonselected (unwanted) actions, and rTMS was used to produce transient disruption of pre-SMA functioning. We found that when rTMS was applied over pre-SMA, inhibition of the nonselected movement representation was reduced. Importantly, this effect was only observed when the imperative cue produced a substantial amount of competition between the response alternatives. These results are consistent with previous studies pointing to a role of pre-SMA in competition resolution. In addition, our findings indicate that this function of pre-SMA involves the control of inhibitory influences directed at unwanted action representations.

Role of medial frontal cortex in word retrieval

NeuroImage ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. S278
Author(s):  
Hope Benefield ◽  
Bruce Crosson ◽  
M. Allison Cato ◽  
Joseph R. Sadek ◽  
Kaundinya Gopinath ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Frontal Cortex ◽  
Word Retrieval ◽  
Medial Frontal Cortex

Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex Regulates Sympathy: A TMS Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Holbrook ◽  
Marco Iacoboni ◽  
Chelsea Gordon ◽  
Shannon Proksch ◽  
Harmony Makhfi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Frontal Cortex ◽  
Control Region ◽  
Functional Role ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Visual Area ◽  
Medial Frontal Cortex ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Middle Temporal ◽  
Harm To Others

Harm to some elicits greater sympathy than harm to others. Here, we examine the role of posterior medial frontal cortex (PMFC) in regulating sympathy, and explore the potential role of PMFC in the related phenomena of mentalizing and representing others as connected with oneself. We down-regulated either PMFC or a control region (middle temporal visual area), then assessed feelings of sympathy for and self-other overlap with two characters described as having suffered physical harm, and who were framed as adversarial or affiliative, respectively. We also measured mentalizing performance with regard to inferring the cognitive and affective states of the adversarial character. As hypothesized, down-regulating PMFC increased sympathy for both characters. Whereas we had predicted that down-regulating PMFC would decrease mentalizing ability given the postulated role of PMFC in the mentalizing network, participants in the PMFC down-regulation condition evinced greater second-order cognitive inference ability relative to controls. We observed no effect of the TMS manipulation on self-other overlap, although sympathy and self-other overlap were positively correlated. These findings are discussed as they may inform understanding of the functional role(s) of PMFC in regulating responses broadly linked with empathy.

scholarly journals The Role of Medial Frontal Cortex in Action Anticipation in Professional Badminton Players

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huan Xu ◽  
Pin Wang ◽  
Zhuo’er Ye ◽  
Xin Di ◽  
Guiping Xu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Frontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Frontal Cortex

scholarly journals Elucidating the role of the posterior medial frontal cortex in social conflict processing

2019 ◽  
Vol 132 ◽  
pp. 107124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie J. Wake ◽  
Ryuta Aoki ◽  
Kiyoshi Nakahara ◽  
Keise Izuma
Keyword(s):  
Frontal Cortex ◽  
Social Conflict ◽  
Medial Frontal Cortex ◽  
Conflict Processing

Hierarchical Error Evaluation: The Role of Medial-Frontal Cortex in Postural Control

2014 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 381-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cameron D. Hassall ◽  
Stephane MacLean ◽  
Olave E. Krigolson
Keyword(s):  
Postural Control ◽  
Frontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Frontal Cortex ◽  
Error Evaluation

scholarly journals Effects of Local Inactivation of Monkey Medial Frontal Cortex in Learning of Sequential Procedures

1999 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 1063-1068 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kae Nakamura ◽  
Katsuyuki Sakai ◽  
Okihide Hikosaka
Keyword(s):  
Frontal Cortex ◽  
Supplementary Motor Area ◽  
Medial Frontal Cortex ◽  
Button Press ◽  
Sequential Movements ◽  
Sequential Procedures ◽  
Fixed Order ◽  
And Control ◽  
Differential Contribution

To examine the role of the medial frontal cortex, supplementary motor area (SMA), and pre-SMA in the acquisition and control of sequential movements, we locally injected muscimol into 43 sites in the medial frontal cortex while monkeys (n = 2) performed a sequential button-press task. In this task, the monkey had to press two of 16 (4 × 4 matrix) buttons illuminated simultaneously in a predetermined order. A total of five pairs were presented in a fixed order for completion of a trial. To clarify the differential contribution of the medial frontal cortex for new acquisition and control of sequential movements, we used novel and learned sequences (that had been learned after extensive practice). We found that the number of errors increased for novel sequences, but not for learned sequences, after pre-SMA inactivations. A similar, but insignificant, trend was observed after SMA injections. The reaction time of button presses for both novel and learned sequences was prolonged by inactivations of both SMA and pre-SMA, with a trend for the effect to be larger for SMA inactivations. These findings suggest that the medial frontal cortex, especially pre-SMA, is related to the acquisition, rather than the storage or execution, of the correct order of button presses.

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