title: Proactive and reactive processes in the medial frontal cortex: an electrophysiological study.
abstract: The posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) is known to be involved in adaptive goal-directed behavior, but its specific function is not yet clear. Most theories have proposed that the pMFC monitors performance in a reactive manner only, but it is possible that the pMFC also contributes to performance monitoring in a proactive manner. To date, the evidence for proactive pMFC activity is equivocal. Here, we investigated pMFC activity before, during and after the performance of a challenging motor task. Participants navigated a cursor through narrow and wide mazes in randomly intermixed trials. On each trial, participants saw previews of the actual maze display prior to gaining control of the cursor. Event-related potentials (ERPs) to the preview displays were compared to ERPs elicited by no-go signals and errors. Compared to the wider maze, the preview display for the more challenging narrow maze elicited a medial-frontal negativity (MFN) similar to the ERP components elicited by no-go signals and errors. Like these known ERP components, the preview-elicited MFN appeared to be generated from a source in pMFC. This is consistent with the hypothesis that the pMFC participates in adaptive behavior whenever there is a need for increased effort to maintain successful task performance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, United States of America.
authors.forename: Flavio T P
authors.initials: FT
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.affiliation: VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Clayton
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hickey
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: John J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: McDonald
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D055724:Electrophysiological Phenomena; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D055815:Young Adult