Impact of orbitofrontal lesions on electrophysiological signals in a stop signal task

Authors:

• Anne-Kristin Solbakk

• Ingrid Funderud

• Tor Endestad

• Torstein Meling

• Magnus Lindgren

• Robert T. Knight

• Ulrike M. Krämer

Date: 2014

DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_00561

PubMed: 24392904

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Abstract:

Behavioral inhibition and performance monitoring are critical cognitive functions supported by distributed neural networks including the pFC. We examined neurophysiological correlates of motor response inhibition and action monitoring in patients with focal orbitofrontal (OFC) lesions (n = 12) after resection of a primary intracranial tumor or contusion because of traumatic brain injury. Healthy participants served as controls (n = 14). Participants performed a visual stop signal task. We analyzed behavioral performance as well as event-related brain potentials and oscillations. Inhibition difficulty was adjusted individually to yield an equal amount of successful inhibitions across participants. RTs of patients and controls did not differ significantly in go trials or in failed stop trials, and no differences were observed in estimated stop signal RT. However, electrophysiological response patterns during task performance distinguished the groups. Patients with OFC lesions had enhanced P3 amplitudes to congruent condition go signals and to stop signals. In stop trials, patients had attenuated N2 and error-related negativity, but enhanced error positivity. Patients also showed enhanced and prolonged post-error beta band increases for stop errors. This effect was particularly evident in patients whose lesion extended to the subgenual cingulate cortex. In summary, although response inhibition was not impaired, the diminished stop N2 and ERN support a critical role of the OFC in action monitoring. Moreover, the increased stop P3, error positivity, and post-error beta response indicate that OFC injury affected action outcome evaluation and support the notion that the OFC is relevant for the processing of abstract reinforcers such as performing correctly in the task.

Oscillatory dynamics track motor learning in human cortex

Authors:

• S. Durschmid

• Fanny Quandt

• Ulrike M. Krämer

• Hermann Hinrichs

• R. T. Schultz

• H. Pannek

• Edward F. Chang

• Robert T. Knight

Date: 2014

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0089576

PubMed: 24586885

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Abstract:

Improving performance in motor skill acquisition is proposed to be supported by tuning of neural networks. To address this issue we investigated changes of phase-amplitude cross-frequency coupling (paCFC) in neuronal networks during motor performance improvement. We recorded intracranially from subdural electrodes (electrocorticogram; ECoG) from 6 patients who learned 3 distinct motor tasks requiring coordination of finger movements with an external cue (serial response task, auditory motor coordination task, go/no-go). Performance improved in all subjects and all tasks during the first block and plateaued in subsequent blocks. Performance improvement was paralleled by increasing neural changes in the trial-to-trial paCFC between theta ([Formula: see text]; 4-8 Hz) phase and high gamma (HG; 80-180 Hz) amplitude. Electrodes showing this covariation pattern (Pearson's r ranging up to .45) were located contralateral to the limb performing the task and were observed predominantly in motor brain regions. We observed stable paCFC when task performance asymptoted. Our results indicate that motor performance improvement is accompanied by adjustments in the dynamics and topology of neuronal network interactions in the [Formula: see text] and HG range. The location of the involved electrodes suggests that oscillatory dynamics in motor cortices support performance improvement with practice.

Anterior Cingulate Cortex and Cognitive Control: Neuropsychological and Electrophysiological Findings in Two Patients with Lesions to Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex

Authors:

• Marianne Lovstad

• Ingrid Funderud

• Torstein Meling

• Ulrike M. Krämer

• Bradley Voytek

• Paulina Due-Tønnesse

• Tor Endestad

• Magnus Lindgren

• Robert T. Knight

• Anne-Kristin Solbakk

Date: 2012

DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2012.07.008

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Abstract:

Whereas neuroimaging studies of healthy subjects have demonstrated an association between the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and cognitive control functions, including response monitoring and error detection, lesion studies are sparse and have produced mixed results. Due to largely normal behavioral test results in two patients with medial prefrontal lesions, a hypothesis has been advanced claiming that the ACC is not involved in cognitive operations. In the current study, two comparably rare patients with unilateral lesions to dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) encompassing the ACC were assessed with neuropsychological tests as well as Event-Related Potentials in two experimental paradigms known to engage prefrontal cortex (PFC). These included an auditory Novelty Oddball task and a visual Stop-signal task. Both patients performed normally on the Stroop test but showed reduced performance on tests of learning and memory. Moreover, altered attentional control was reflected in a diminished Novelty P3, whereas the posterior P3b to target stimuli was present in both patients. The error-related negativity, which has been hypothesized to be generated in the ACC, was present in both patients, but alterations of inhibitory behavior were observed. Although interpretative caution is generally called for in single case studies, and the fact that the lesions extended outside the ACC, the findings nevertheless suggest a role for MPFC in cognitive control that is not restricted to error monitoring.

The role of the lateral prefrontal cortex in inhibitory motor control

Authors:

• Ulrike M. Krämer

• Anne-Kristin Solbakk

• Ingrid Funderud

• Marianne Lovstad

• Tor Endestad

• Robert T. Knight

Date: 2012

DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2012.05.003

PubMed: 22699024

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Abstract:

Research on inhibitory motor control has implicated several prefrontal as well as subcortical and parietal regions in response inhibition. Whether prefrontal regions are critical for inhibition, attention or task-set representation is still under debate. We investigated the influence of the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) in a response inhibition task by using cognitive electrophysiology in prefrontal lesion patients. Patients and age- and education-matched controls performed in a visual Stop-signal task featuring lateralized stimuli, designed to challenge either the intact or lesioned hemisphere. Participants also underwent a purely behavioral Go/Nogo task, which included a manipulation of inhibition difficulty (blocks with 50 vs. 80% go-trials) and a Change-signal task that required switching to an alternative response. Patients and controls did not differ in their inhibitory speed (stop-signal and change-signal reaction time, SSRT and CSRT), but patients made more errors in the Go/Nogo task and showed more variable performance. The behavioral data stress the role of the PFC in maintaining inhibitory control but not in actual inhibition. These results support a dissociation between action cancellation and PFC-dependent action restraint. Laplacian transformed event-related potentials (ERPs) revealed reduced parietal activity in PFC patients in response to the stop-signals, and increased frontal activity over the intact hemisphere. This electrophysiological finding supports altered PFC-dependent visual processing of the stop-signal in parietal areas and compensatory activity in the intact frontal cortex. No group differences were found in the mu and beta decrease as measures of response preparation and inhibition at electrodes over sensorimotor cortex. Taken together, the data provide evidence for a central role of the lateral PFC in attentional control in the context of response inhibition.

Electrophysiological evidence for different inhibitory mechanisms when stopping or changing a planned response

Authors:

• Ulrike M. Krämer

• Robert T. Knight

• Thomas F. Münte

Date: 2011

DOI: 10.1162/jocn.2010.21573

PubMed: 20849230

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Abstract:

People are able to adapt their behavior to changing environmental contingencies by rapidly inhibiting or modifying their actions. Response inhibition is often studied in the stop-signal paradigm that requires the suppression of an already prepared motor response. Less is known about situations calling for a change of motor plans such that the prepared response has to be withheld but another has to be executed instead. In the present study, we investigated whether electrophysiological data can provide evidence for distinct inhibitory mechanisms when stopping or changing a response. Participants were instructed to perform in a choice RT task with two classes of embedded critical trials: Stop signals called for the inhibition of any response, whereas change signals required participants to inhibit the prepared response and execute another one instead. Under both conditions, we observed differences in go-stimulus processing, suggesting a faster response preparation in failed compared with successful inhibitions. In contrast to stop-signal trials, changing a response did not elicit the inhibition-related frontal N2 and did not modulate the parietal mu power decrease. The results suggest that compared with changing a response, additional frontal and parietal regions are engaged when having to inhibit a response.