title: Offline continuous theta burst stimulation over right inferior frontal gyrus and pre-supplementary motor area impairs inhibition during a go/no-go task.
abstract: In a typical go/no-go task a single imperative stimulus is presented each trial, either a go or no-go stimulus. Participants are instructed to initiate a known response upon appearance of the go-signal and withhold the response if the no-go signal is presented. It is unclear whether the go-response is prepared in advance of the imperative stimulus in a go/no-go task. Moreover, it is unclear if inhibitory control processes suppress preparatory go-activation. The purpose of the present experiment was 1) to determine whether the go-response is prepared in advance of stimulus identification with the use of a startling acoustic stimulus (SAS), and 2) investigate the inhibitory role of the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG) and pre-supplementary motor area (preSMA) during the performance of a go/no-go task with the use of continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS). The experiment consisted of three phases; a pre-cTBS phase in which participants completed a go/no-go and simple-RT task, followed by offline cTBS to temporarily deactivate either rIFG or preSMA (with a sham control), then a post-cTBS phase which was identical to the pre-cTBS phase. Results revealed that stimulation to both cortical sites impaired participants' ability to withhold movements during no-go trials. Notably, rIFG or preSMA stimulation did not affect the latency of voluntary go-responses and did not enable the SAS to involuntarily trigger responses. These findings suggest that preparation and initiation of the go-response occurs after the imperative stimulus, with the rIFG and preSMA involved in inhibiting the go-response once the stimulus is identified as a no-go signal.
authors.affiliation: School of Human Kinetics, University of Ottawa, 125 University Private, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1N 6N5. Electronic address: neil.drummond@uottawa.ca.
authors.forename: Neil M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Drummond
authors.affiliation: School of Human Kinetics, University of Ottawa, 125 University Private, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1N 6N5.
authors.forename: Erin K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Cressman
authors.affiliation: School of Human Kinetics, University of Ottawa, 125 University Private, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1N 6N5.
authors.forename: Anthony N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Carlsen
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001132:Arm / Q000502:physiology; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D004576:Electromyography; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time; D013216:Reflex, Startle / Q000502:physiology; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
keywords: Behavioural control; Continuous theta burst stimulation; Go/no-go task; Response inhibition; Response initiation; Startling acoustic stimulus