title: Neurocognitive mechanisms of action control: resisting the call of the Sirens.
abstract: An essential facet of adaptive and versatile behavior is the ability to prioritize actions in response to dynamically changing circumstances. The field of potential actions afforded by a situation is shaped by many factors, such as environmental demands, past experiences, and prepotent tendencies. Selection among action affordances can be driven by deliberate, intentional processes as a product of goal-directed behavior and by extraneous stimulus-action associations as established inherently or through learning. We first review the neurocognitive mechanisms putatively linked to these intention-driven and association-driven routes of action selection. Next, we review the neurocognitive mechanisms engaged to inhibit action affordances that are no longer relevant or that interfere with goal-directed action selection. Optimal action control is viewed as a dynamic interplay between selection and suppression mechanisms, which is achieved by an elaborate circuitry of interconnected cortical regions (most prominently the pre-supplementary motor area and the right inferior frontal cortex) and basal ganglia structures (most prominently the dorsal striatum and the subthalamic nucleus). WIREs Cogni Sci 2011 2 174-192 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.99 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.
authors: Amsterdam Center for the Study of Adaptive Control in Brain and Behavior (Acacia), Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors: K
authors: K
authors: Richard Ridderinkhof
authors: Spinoza Center for Neuroimaging, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors: Birte U
authors: BU
authors: Forstmann
authors: Department of Neurology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22908, USA.
authors: Scott A
authors: SA
authors: Wylie
authors: University of Aix-Marseilles, CNRS, Marseilles, France.
authors: Borís
authors: B
authors: Burle
authors: Amsterdam Center for the Study of Adaptive Control in Brain and Behavior (Acacia), Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors: Wery P M
authors: WPM
authors: van den Wildenberg