Proactive and reactive processes in the medial frontal cortex: an electrophysiological study.
The posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) is known to be involved in adaptive goal-directed behavior, but its specific function is not yet clear. Most theories have proposed that the pMFC monitors performance in a reactive manner only, but it is possible that the pMFC also contributes to performanc...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2014-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3880274?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1811274052800610304 |
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| author | Flavio T P Oliveira Clayton Hickey John J McDonald |
| author_facet | Flavio T P Oliveira Clayton Hickey John J McDonald |
| author_sort | Flavio T P Oliveira |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) is known to be involved in adaptive goal-directed behavior, but its specific function is not yet clear. Most theories have proposed that the pMFC monitors performance in a reactive manner only, but it is possible that the pMFC also contributes to performance monitoring in a proactive manner. To date, the evidence for proactive pMFC activity is equivocal. Here, we investigated pMFC activity before, during and after the performance of a challenging motor task. Participants navigated a cursor through narrow and wide mazes in randomly intermixed trials. On each trial, participants saw previews of the actual maze display prior to gaining control of the cursor. Event-related potentials (ERPs) to the preview displays were compared to ERPs elicited by no-go signals and errors. Compared to the wider maze, the preview display for the more challenging narrow maze elicited a medial-frontal negativity (MFN) similar to the ERP components elicited by no-go signals and errors. Like these known ERP components, the preview-elicited MFN appeared to be generated from a source in pMFC. This is consistent with the hypothesis that the pMFC participates in adaptive behavior whenever there is a need for increased effort to maintain successful task performance. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T23:12:01Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-bc115ead38c14030a6f94087f0306485 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T23:12:01Z |
| publishDate | 2014-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-bc115ead38c14030a6f94087f03064852022-12-22T03:12:47ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032014-01-0191e8435110.1371/journal.pone.0084351Proactive and reactive processes in the medial frontal cortex: an electrophysiological study.Flavio T P OliveiraClayton HickeyJohn J McDonaldThe posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) is known to be involved in adaptive goal-directed behavior, but its specific function is not yet clear. Most theories have proposed that the pMFC monitors performance in a reactive manner only, but it is possible that the pMFC also contributes to performance monitoring in a proactive manner. To date, the evidence for proactive pMFC activity is equivocal. Here, we investigated pMFC activity before, during and after the performance of a challenging motor task. Participants navigated a cursor through narrow and wide mazes in randomly intermixed trials. On each trial, participants saw previews of the actual maze display prior to gaining control of the cursor. Event-related potentials (ERPs) to the preview displays were compared to ERPs elicited by no-go signals and errors. Compared to the wider maze, the preview display for the more challenging narrow maze elicited a medial-frontal negativity (MFN) similar to the ERP components elicited by no-go signals and errors. Like these known ERP components, the preview-elicited MFN appeared to be generated from a source in pMFC. This is consistent with the hypothesis that the pMFC participates in adaptive behavior whenever there is a need for increased effort to maintain successful task performance.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3880274?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Flavio T P Oliveira Clayton Hickey John J McDonald Proactive and reactive processes in the medial frontal cortex: an electrophysiological study. PLoS ONE |
| title | Proactive and reactive processes in the medial frontal cortex: an electrophysiological study. |
| title_full | Proactive and reactive processes in the medial frontal cortex: an electrophysiological study. |
| title_fullStr | Proactive and reactive processes in the medial frontal cortex: an electrophysiological study. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Proactive and reactive processes in the medial frontal cortex: an electrophysiological study. |
| title_short | Proactive and reactive processes in the medial frontal cortex: an electrophysiological study. |
| title_sort | proactive and reactive processes in the medial frontal cortex an electrophysiological study |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3880274?pdf=render |
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