On the Globality of Motor Suppression: Unexpected Events and Their Influence on Behavior and Cognition

Jan R Wessel; Adam R Aron

doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2016.12.013

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On the Globality of Motor Suppression: Unexpected Events and Their Influence on Behavior and Cognition

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

On the Globality of Motor Suppression: Unexpected Events and Their Influence on Behavior and Cognition

Jan R Wessel and Adam R Aron

Neuron (Cambridge, Mass.), Vol.93(2), pp.259-280

01/18/2017

DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.12.013

PMCID: PMC5260803

PMID: 28103476

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Abstract

Unexpected events are part of everyday experience. They come in several varieties—action errors, unexpected action outcomes, and unexpected perceptual events—and they lead to motor slowing and cognitive distraction. While different varieties of unexpected events have been studied largely independently, and many different mechanisms are thought to explain their effects on action and cognition, we suggest a unifying theory. We propose that unexpected events recruit a fronto-basal-ganglia network for stopping. This network includes specific prefrontal cortical nodes and is posited to project to the subthalamic nucleus, with a putative global suppressive effect on basal-ganglia output. We argue that unexpected events interrupt action and impact cognition, partly at least, by recruiting this global suppressive network. This provides a common mechanistic basis for different types of unexpected events; links the literatures on motor inhibition, performance monitoring, attention, and working memory; and is relevant for understanding clinical symptoms of distractibility and mental inflexibility. Wessel and Aron provide a new perspective on unexpected events. They argue that unexpected events interrupt action and cognition, partly by recruiting a specific fronto-basal-ganglia mechanism heretofore related to action stopping. Their theory links diverse literatures and has clinical implications.

surprise

cognitive control

distraction

motor inhibition

unexpected events

working memory

attention

errors

novels

Details

Title: Subtitle: On the Globality of Motor Suppression: Unexpected Events and Their Influence on Behavior and Cognition
Creators: Jan R Wessel - Department of Neurology, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
Adam R Aron - Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Neuron (Cambridge, Mass.), Vol.93(2), pp.259-280
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.12.013
PMID: 28103476
PMCID: PMC5260803
NLM abbreviation: Neuron
ISSN: 0896-6273
eISSN: 1097-4199
Publisher: Elsevier Inc
Grant note: DOI: 10.13039/100000002, name: NIH, award: DA026452; name: James S McDonnell, award: 220020375
Language: English
Date published: 01/18/2017
Academic Unit: Roy J. Carver Department of Biomedical Engineering; Neurology; Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
Record Identifier: 9984002472502771

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