The Role of the Right Inferior Frontal Gyrus: Inhibition and Attentional Control

Overview

Journal Neuroimage

Specialty Radiology

Date 2010 Jan 9

PMID 20056157

Citations 577

Authors

Adam Hampshire

Samuel R Chamberlain

Martin M Monti

John Duncan

Adrian M Owen

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

There is growing interest regarding the role of the right inferior frontal gyrus (RIFG) during a particular form of executive control referred to as response inhibition. However, tasks used to examine neural activity at the point of response inhibition have rarely controlled for the potentially confounding effects of attentional demand. In particular, it is unclear whether the RIFG is specifically involved in inhibitory control, or is involved more generally in the detection of salient or task relevant cues. The current fMRI study sought to clarify the role of the RIFG in executive control by holding the stimulus conditions of one of the most popular response inhibition tasks-the Stop Signal Task-constant, whilst varying the response that was required on reception of the stop signal cue. Our results reveal that the RIFG is recruited when important cues are detected, regardless of whether that detection is followed by the inhibition of a motor response, the generation of a motor response, or no external response at all.

Citing Articles

Neurophysiological insights into catecholamine-dependent tDCS modulation of cognitive control.

Koyun A, Wendiggensen P, Roessner V, Beste C, Stock A Commun Biol. 2025; 8(1):375.

PMID: 40050533 PMC: 11885824. DOI: 10.1038/s42003-025-07805-6.

Functional Connectivity Changes Associated With Depression in Dementia With Lewy Bodies.

Querry M, Botzung A, Sourty M, Chabran E, Sanna L, Loureiro de Sousa P Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2025; 40(3):e70058.

PMID: 40011213 PMC: 11865007. DOI: 10.1002/gps.70058.

Automatic engagement of limbic and prefrontal networks in response to food images reflects distinct information about food hedonics and inhibitory control.

Avery J, Carrington M, Ingeholm J, Darcey V, Simmons W, Hall K Commun Biol. 2025; 8(1):270.

PMID: 39979602 PMC: 11842766. DOI: 10.1038/s42003-025-07704-w.

Computational mechanism underlying switching of motor actions.

Zhong S, Pouratian N, Christopoulos V PLoS Comput Biol. 2025; 21(2):e1012811.

PMID: 39928670 PMC: 11875378. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012811.

Metacontrol instructions lead to adult-like event segmentation in adolescents.

Zhou X, Ghorbani F, Roessner V, Hommel B, Prochnow A, Beste C Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2025; 72:101521.

PMID: 39892154 PMC: 11833649. DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2025.101521.

References

Aron A, Robbins T, Poldrack R . Inhibition and the right inferior frontal cortex. Trends Cogn Sci. 2004; 8(4):170-7. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2004.02.010. View

Hampshire A, Duncan J, Owen A . Selective tuning of the blood oxygenation level-dependent response during simple target detection dissociates human frontoparietal subregions. J Neurosci. 2007; 27(23):6219-23. PMC: 6672146. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0851-07.2007. View

Verbruggen F, Logan G . Response inhibition in the stop-signal paradigm. Trends Cogn Sci. 2008; 12(11):418-24. PMC: 2709177. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2008.07.005. View

Li C, Huang C, Constable R, Sinha R . Imaging response inhibition in a stop-signal task: neural correlates independent of signal monitoring and post-response processing. J Neurosci. 2006; 26(1):186-92. PMC: 6674298. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3741-05.2006. View

Kastner S, Pinsk M, De Weerd P, DeSimone R, Ungerleider L . Increased activity in human visual cortex during directed attention in the absence of visual stimulation. Neuron. 1999; 22(4):751-61. DOI: 10.1016/s0896-6273(00)80734-5. View

Picton T, Stuss D, Alexander M, Shallice T, Binns M, Gillingham S . Effects of focal frontal lesions on response inhibition. Cereb Cortex. 2006; 17(4):826-38. DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhk031. View

Dehaene S, Kerszberg M, Changeux J . A neuronal model of a global workspace in effortful cognitive tasks. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1998; 95(24):14529-34. PMC: 24407. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.95.24.14529. View

Duann J, Ide J, Luo X, Li C . Functional connectivity delineates distinct roles of the inferior frontal cortex and presupplementary motor area in stop signal inhibition. J Neurosci. 2009; 29(32):10171-9. PMC: 2769086. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1300-09.2009. View

Dove A, Brett M, Cusack R, Owen A . Dissociable contributions of the mid-ventrolateral frontal cortex and the medial temporal lobe system to human memory. Neuroimage. 2006; 31(4):1790-801. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.02.035. View

10.

Logan G, Van Zandt T, Verbruggen F, Wagenmakers E . On the ability to inhibit thought and action: general and special theories of an act of control. Psychol Rev. 2014; 121(1):66-95. DOI: 10.1037/a0035230. View

11.

Dove A, Pollmann S, Schubert T, Wiggins C, von Cramon D . Prefrontal cortex activation in task switching: an event-related fMRI study. Brain Res Cogn Brain Res. 2000; 9(1):103-9. DOI: 10.1016/s0926-6410(99)00029-4. View

12.

Cools R, Clark L, Owen A, Robbins T . Defining the neural mechanisms of probabilistic reversal learning using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging. J Neurosci. 2002; 22(11):4563-7. PMC: 6758810. DOI: 20026435. View

13.

Rubia K, Overmeyer S, Taylor E, Brammer M, Williams S, Simmons A . Hypofrontality in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder during higher-order motor control: a study with functional MRI. Am J Psychiatry. 1999; 156(6):891-6. DOI: 10.1176/ajp.156.6.891. View

14.

Simmonds D, Pekar J, Mostofsky S . Meta-analysis of Go/No-go tasks demonstrating that fMRI activation associated with response inhibition is task-dependent. Neuropsychologia. 2007; 46(1):224-32. PMC: 2327217. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2007.07.015. View

15.

Corbetta M, Shulman G . Control of goal-directed and stimulus-driven attention in the brain. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2002; 3(3):201-15. DOI: 10.1038/nrn755. View

16.

Anderson M, Ochsner K, Kuhl B, Cooper J, Robertson E, Gabrieli S . Neural systems underlying the suppression of unwanted memories. Science. 2004; 303(5655):232-5. DOI: 10.1126/science.1089504. View

17.

Shallice T, Stuss D, Picton T, Alexander M, Gillingham S . Mapping task switching in frontal cortex through neuropsychological group studies. Front Neurosci. 2008; 2(1):79-85. PMC: 2570079. DOI: 10.3389/neuro.01.013.2008. View

18.

Wegner D, Schneider D, Carter 3rd S, White T . Paradoxical effects of thought suppression. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1987; 53(1):5-13. DOI: 10.1037//0022-3514.53.1.5. View

19.

Everling S, Tinsley C, Gaffan D, Duncan J . Filtering of neural signals by focused attention in the monkey prefrontal cortex. Nat Neurosci. 2002; 5(7):671-6. DOI: 10.1038/nn874. View

20.

Menon V, Adleman N, White C, Glover G, Reiss A . Error-related brain activation during a Go/NoGo response inhibition task. Hum Brain Mapp. 2001; 12(3):131-43. PMC: 6872006. DOI: 10.1002/1097-0193(200103)12:3<131::aid-hbm1010>3.0.co;2-c. View