Success and failure suppressing reflexive behavior.
The dynamic interplay between reflexive and controlled determinants of behavior is one of the most general organizing principles of brain function. A powerful analogue of this interplay is seen in the antisaccade task, which pits reflexive and willed saccadic mechanisms against one another. Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging of the human brain showed greater prestimulus preparatory activity in the pre-supplementary motor area before voluntary antisaccades (saccades away from a target) compared with reflexive prosaccades (saccades to a target). Moreover, this preparatory activity was critically associated with reflex suppression; it predicted whether the reflex was later successfully inhibited in the trial. These dataillustrate a mechanism for top-down control over reflexive behavior.
Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley 94720-1650, USA. cc@socrates.berkeley.edu
Clayton E
CE
Curtis
Mark
M
D'Esposito
D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D012018:Reflex; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology*