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The system neurophysiological basis of backward inhibition

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Abstract

Task switching is regularly required in our everyday life. To succeed in switching, it is important to inhibit the most recently performed task and instead activate the currently relevant task. The process that inhibits a recently performed task when a new task is to be performed is referred to as ‘backward inhibition’ (BI). While the BI effect has been subject to intense research in cognitive psychology, little is known about the neuronal mechanisms that are related to the BI effect and those that relate to differences in the magnitude of the BI effect. In the current study, we examined the system neurophysiological basis of BI processes using event-related potentials (ERPs) and sLORETA by also taking inter-individual differences in the magnitude of the BI into account. The results suggest that BI processes and inter-individual differences in them strongly depend upon attentional selection mechanisms (reflected by N1-ERP modulations in the current task/trial) mediated via networks consisting of extrastriate occipital areas, the temporo-parietal junction and the inferior frontal gyrus. Other processes and mechanisms related to conflict monitoring, response selection, or the updating, organization and implementation of a new task-set (i.e. N2 and P3 processes) were not shown to be modulated by BI processes and differences in their magnitude, as evoked with a common BI paradigm.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a Grant from the German Research Foundation (DFG) awarded to C. B. (BE4045/10-2) and was partially supported by a Grant of the DFG awarded to R. F. (CRC 940, Project A3).

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    1. Cognitive Neurophysiology, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine of the TU Dresden, Schubertstraße 42, 01309, Dresden, Germany

      Rui Zhang, Ann-Kathrin Stock & Christian Beste

    2. Department of General Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany

      Rico Fischer

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    R. Zhang and A.-K. Stock contributed equally.

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    Zhang, R., Stock, AK., Fischer, R. et al. The system neurophysiological basis of backward inhibition. Brain Struct Funct 221, 4575–4587 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-016-1186-0

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