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Prefrontal–cingulate interactions in action monitoring

Abstract

We found that medial frontal cortex activity associated with action monitoring (detecting errors and behavioral conflict) depended on activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex. We recorded the error-related negativity (ERN), an event-related brain potential proposed to reflect anterior cingulate action monitoring, from individuals with lateral prefrontal damage or age-matched or young control participants. In controls, error trials generated greater ERN activity than correct trials. In individuals with lateral prefrontal damage, however, correct-trial ERN activity was equal to error-trial ERN activity. Lateral prefrontal damage also affected corrective behavior. Thus the lateral prefrontal cortex seemed to interact with the anterior cingulate cortex in monitoring behavior and in guiding compensatory systems.

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Figure 1: Lesion reconstruction in the six individuals with unilateral damage in the lateral prefrontal cortex.
Figure 2: Response-locked event-related potentials from the vertex (Cz) electrode.
Figure 3: Mean response force for each participant group.
Figure 4: Correct reaction times as a function of the response on the previous trial for each participant group.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Individual National Research Service Award to W.G. (1 F32 NS09577-01) and NINDS grant NS21135 to R.K. We thank the participants for their contribution to this study. We thank Clay Clayworth, John Lackey, Greg Shenaut, Stefan Rosahl, Donatella Scabini and Babak Taheri for technical assistance and Rich Ivry for discussions.

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Correspondence to William J. Gehring.

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Gehring, W., Knight, R. Prefrontal–cingulate interactions in action monitoring. Nat Neurosci 3, 516–520 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/74899

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