Theta Lingua Franca: a Common Mid-frontal Substrate for Action Monitoring Processes

Overview

Journal Psychophysiology

Specialty Psychiatry

Date 2011 Nov 19

PMID 22091878

Citations 238

Authors

James F Cavanagh

Laura Zambrano-Vazquez

John J B Allen

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

We present evidence that a multitude of mid-frontal event-related potential (ERP) components partially reflect a common theta band oscillatory process. Specifically, mid-frontal ERP components in the N2 time range and error-related negativity time range are parsimoniously characterized as reflections of theta band activities. Forty participants completed three different tasks with varying stimulus-response demands. Permutation tests were used to identify the dominant time-frequency responses of stimulus- and response-locked conditions as well as the enhanced responses to novelty, conflict, punishment, and error. A dominant theta band feature was found in all conditions, and both ERP component amplitudes and theta power measures were similarly modulated by novelty, conflict, punishment, and error. The findings support the hypothesis that generic and reactive medial prefrontal cortex processes are parsimoniously reflected by theta band activities.

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