Inhibition of return arises from inhibition of response processes: an analysis of oscillatory beta activity.
Abstract In the orienting of attention paradigm, inhibition of return (IOR) refers to slowed responses to targets presented at the same location as a preceding stimulus. No consensus has yet been reached regarding the stages of information processing underlying the inhibition. We report the results of an electro-encephalogram experiment designed to examine the involvement of response inhibition in IOR. Using a cue-target design and a target-target design, we addressed the role of response inhibition in a location discrimination task. Event-related changes in beta power were measured because oscillatory beta activity has been shown to be related to motor activity. Bilaterally located sources in the primary motor cortex showed event-related beta desynchronization (ERD) both at cue and target presentation and a rebound to event-related beta synchronization (ERS) after movement execution. In both designs, IOR arose from an enhancement of beta synchrony. IOR was related to an increase of beta ERS in the target-target design and to a decrease of beta ERD in the cue-target design. These results suggest an important role of response inhibition in IOR.
Pastötter
Bernhard
B
Department of Experimental Psychology, Regensburg University, Regensburg, Germany. bernhard.pastoetter@psychologie.uni-regensburg.de
Hanslmayr
Simon
S
Bäuml
Karl-Heinz
KH
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001611:Beta Rhythm; D003344:Cortical Synchronization; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D009433:Neural Inhibition / Q000502:physiology*; D009991:Oscillometry; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D011931:Reactive Inhibition; D012016:Reference Values