Cortical Contributions to Attentional Orienting and Response Cancellation in Action Stopping
- 1University of Tasmania
- 2Full brain picture Analytics
Abstract
Action cancellation involves the termination of planned or ongoing movement, likely initiated in the cortex by the pre-supplementary motor area (preSMA) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). It is frequently examined using the stop-signal task; electromyography (EMG) studies have shown action cancellation (in stop trials) can involve the partial activation of the responding muscles, which does not result in an overt behavioral response. The neural correlates of these partial responses are not well understood. Here, we combined functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and EMG to examine the neural correlates of terminated actions (partial responses) in a response- and stimulus-selective stop signal task, controlling for attentional confounds by comparing neural activity in stop and ignore trials. fNIRS analyses revealed increased preSMA activity in successful stop compared to ignore trials, but no such differences in the IFG, consistent with postulations that the preSMA is involved uniquely in action cancellation, while the IFG responds generically to unexpected stimuli. Critically, preSMA activity was greater in trials without partial muscle activation, potentially due to proactive inhibitory processes pre-emptively suppressing motor output in these trials. These findings advance understanding of some of the neurophysiological dynamics involved in action cancellation and highlight the utility of combining fNIRS with EMG in this domain.
Related
- Exposure to different light wavelengths impacts cortical areas associated with oculomotor and attentional control
- Category learning drives cortical attentional gain to diagnostic dimensions of perceptual information
- Luminance and attentional modulation of size perception in peripheral vision: Response to Bedell and Johnson
- Estimation method of attentional object using spatial frequency selectivity in pupillary response
- Patellar tendon-tap intensity modulates response gain but not variability across cortical proprioceptive and stretch-reflex responses
BibTeX
@article{kemp2026cortical,
title = {{Cortical Contributions to Attentional Orienting and Response Cancellation in Action Stopping}},
author = {Sarah Anne Kemp and Sauro E. Salomoni and Pierre‐Louis Bazin and Luke Pash and Rebecca J. St George and Mark R. Hinder},
journal = {Psychophysiology},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1111/psyp.70397},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.70397},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Cortical Contributions to Attentional Orienting and Response Cancellation in Action Stopping
AU - Sarah Anne Kemp
AU - Sauro E. Salomoni
AU - Pierre‐Louis Bazin
AU - Luke Pash
AU - Rebecca J. St George
AU - Mark R. Hinder
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
JO - Psychophysiology
DO - 10.1111/psyp.70397
UR - https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.70397
AB - Action cancellation involves the termination of planned or ongoing movement, likely initiated in the cortex by the pre-supplementary motor area (preSMA) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). It is frequently examined using the stop-signal task; electromyography (EMG) studies have shown action cancellation (in stop trials) can involve the partial activation of the responding muscles, which does not result in an overt behavioral response. The neural correlates of these partial responses are not well understood. Here, we combined functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and EMG to examine the neural correlates of terminated actions (partial responses) in a response- and stimulus-selective stop signal task, controlling for attentional confounds by comparing neural activity in stop and ignore trials. fNIRS analyses revealed increased preSMA activity in successful stop compared to ignore trials, but no such differences in the IFG, consistent with postulations that the preSMA is involved uniquely in action cancellation, while the IFG responds generically to unexpected stimuli. Critically, preSMA activity was greater in trials without partial muscle activation, potentially due to proactive inhibitory processes pre-emptively suppressing motor output in these trials. These findings advance understanding of some of the neurophysiological dynamics involved in action cancellation and highlight the utility of combining fNIRS with EMG in this domain.
SN - 0048-5772
SN - 1469-8986
ER -