To act or not to act. Neural correlates of executive control of learned motor behavior.
Successful behavior requires contextual modulation of learned "programs", that is, the retrieval or nonretrieval (inhibition) of behavioral elements depending on situative context. Here we report neural correlates of these elementary aspects of behavior as identified with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Inhibition of a "ready-to-go" behavioral program was represented in the brain by reduction of net synaptic activity in the cerebro-cerebellar pathway. The metabolic correlate of inhibition was a multifocal (premotor, primary sensorimotor, superior parietal, cingulate cortex, and cerebellum) decrease of the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal to below the resting state (negative BOLD) with a concomitant decrease of motor cortical excitability. The reverse was true for retrieval. We propose that contextual modulation of learned behavioral programs depends on an interplay of focal increases and decreases of neural activity and that the inhibitory changes are reflected by negative BOLD responses in an extended cerebro-cerebellar network of sensorimotor structures.
Hummel
Friedhelm
F
Cortical Physiology Research Group, Department of Neurology, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Eberhard-Karls University Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
Saur
Ralf
R
Lasogga
Simone
S
Plewnia
Christian
C
Erb
Michael
M
Wildgruber
Dirk
D
Grodd
Wolfgang
W
Gerloff
Christian
C
D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000502:physiology; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D003463:Cues; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology; D009433:Neural Inhibition / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D012691:Serial Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D013223:Statistics as Topic
D010100:Oxygen