Breaking action control into its components

A year in research · 28 selected publications · five research threads

In 2016, we decomposed action control into sensory selection, feature binding, response choice, inhibition and evaluation—and showed that each can change independently.

This component-based view made apparently paradoxical findings intelligible: children could switch more flexibly than adults, alcohol could help or harm depending on workload, and a clinical group could behave normally while showing altered neural processing.

01 · EVENT CODING

From perception to a voluntary action

Voluntary event coding separated stimulus categorization, feature unbinding and response selection into distinct EEG processes; reward selectively changed the earliest of these.[1] Perceptual conflicts could already impair later stopping, with the recruited network depending on sensory-integration complexity.[2] Concurrent information shifted inhibition in both directions through theta-network architecture.[3]

Conscious and subliminal conflict began as distinct processes but interacted from early perception through response selection.[4] Backward inhibition, by contrast, depended mainly on current attentional selection rather than later N2 or P3 processes, and reward reduced that attentional inhibition specifically.[5,6]

In plain terms: A controlled action is assembled from separable operations, so an experimental effect must be assigned to the stage that actually changed.

02 · NEUROCHEMISTRY

Dopamine, norepinephrine and GABA have selective roles

D1- and D2-receptor variants differentially influenced inhibition subprocesses, and tyrosine benefited working memory and stopping most in people with a genotype associated with lower striatal dopamine.[7,8] Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation suggested that norepinephrine was more important than simultaneous GABAergic modulation for its inhibitory effects.[9]

Deep brain stimulation of globus pallidus compensated controlled-inhibition deficits in pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration while leaving automatic behaviour relatively distinct.[10] Wilson's disease similarly showed compromised neural evaluation of successful stopping even without greater behavioural impulsivity.[11]

In plain terms: Neurochemical and basal-ganglia effects are process- and person-specific, not uniform changes in performance.

03 · DEVELOPMENT AND ADAPTATION

Experience can reorganize downstream control

Late-childhood participants unexpectedly outperformed young adults in memory-based task switching, illustrating that development need not be a monotonic improvement.[12] Older adults used less efficient task-goal strategies during action cascading because response-selection processes in temporoparietal cortex changed.[13] Deaf adults showed better action cascading through reorganized downstream sensorimotor processes rather than early sensory differences alone.[14]

Fatigue, simulated scanner noise and response mode each changed selected parts of the processing cascade.[15,16] Single-subject prediction indicated that early allocation of resources during responding was especially important for individual stopping success.[17]

In plain terms: Age and sensory experience reshape particular routes through the system; they do not simply add or subtract a general capacity.

04 · CLINICAL SPECIFICITY

Altered binding and gating distinguish conditions

Tourette syndrome involved weaker binding of perceptual features and reduced recruitment of higher-order sensorimotor-gating regions.[18,19] The moment-to-moment relation between premonitory urges and tics was variable, and voluntary suppression partly decoupled the two.[20]

In adolescent autism, multisensory content altered attention and conflict monitoring during inhibition.[21] In ADHD, attentional filtering differed broadly, but medial-prefrontal response selection was the process that predicted impulsive errors; theta/beta neurofeedback modulated this relevant mechanism.[22,23]

In plain terms: Clinical explanation improves when binding, gating and response choice are measured separately and related to behaviour.

05 · CONTEXT AND STRATEGY

Demand changes the meaning of an effect

High-dose alcohol and binge drinking had highly specific effects that reversed with mental workload rather than producing a universal inhibition deficit.[24,25] Combined interference sources interacted through theta activity and partly distinct frontal and parietal regions.[26]

A causal TMS/EEG test questioned a broad role for frontopolar cortex in multi-component behaviour.[27] Excessive control could itself be non-adaptive by suppressing useful implicit learning through right prefrontal mechanisms.[28] These studies encouraged narrower causal claims tied to actual task demands.

In plain terms: The functional value of control depends on workload, information structure and whether automatic regularities should be used.

What 2016 added up to

The 2016 programme established a detailed component logic for action control. That logic connected molecules, networks and behaviour while clarifying why development, clinical variation and intoxication can produce selective—and sometimes counterintuitive—effects.

Selected publications

Curated from PubMed records returned for Beste C[au] in 2016. Citation numbers in the story link to entries below. DOI links open the publisher landing page; PubMed links open the indexed record.

1. A systems neurophysiology approach to voluntary event coding.

Petruo VA, Stock AK, Münchau A, Beste C. NeuroImage. 2016;135:324-32.

DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.05.007   ·   PubMed

2. Perceptual conflict during sensorimotor integration processes - a neurophysiological study in response inhibition.

Chmielewski WX, Beste C. Scientific reports. 2016;6:26289.

DOI: 10.1038/srep26289   ·   PubMed

3. Concurrent information affects response inhibition processes via the modulation of theta oscillations in cognitive control networks.

Chmielewski WX, Mückschel M, Dippel G, Beste C. Brain structure & function. 2016;221(8):3949-3961.

DOI: 10.1007/s00429-015-1137-1   ·   PubMed

4. Subliminally and consciously induced cognitive conflicts interact at several processing levels.

Stock AK, Friedrich J, Beste C. Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior. 2016;85:75-89.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2016.09.027   ·   PubMed

5. The system neurophysiological basis of backward inhibition.

Zhang R, Stock AK, Fischer R, Beste C. Brain structure & function. 2016;221(9):4575-4587.

DOI: 10.1007/s00429-016-1186-0   ·   PubMed

6. The neurophysiological basis of reward effects on backward inhibition processes.

Zhang R, Stock AK, Beste C. NeuroImage. 2016;142:163-171.

DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.05.080   ·   PubMed

7. Dissociable electrophysiological subprocesses during response inhibition are differentially modulated by dopamine D1 and D2 receptors.

Beste C, Stock AK, Epplen JT, Arning L. European neuropsychopharmacology : the journal of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology. 2016;26(6):1029-36.

DOI: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2016.03.002   ·   PubMed

8. Effects of l-Tyrosine on working memory and inhibitory control are determined by DRD2 genotypes: A randomized controlled trial.

Colzato LS, Steenbergen L, Sellaro R, Stock AK, Arning L, Beste C. Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior. 2016;82:217-224.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2016.06.010   ·   PubMed

9. Effects of Concomitant Stimulation of the GABAergic and Norepinephrine System on Inhibitory Control - A Study Using Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation.

Beste C, Steenbergen L, Sellaro R, Grigoriadou S, et al.. Brain stimulation. 2016;9(6):811-818.

DOI: 10.1016/j.brs.2016.07.004   ·   PubMed

10. Deep brain stimulation in the globus pallidus compensates response inhibition deficits: evidence from pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration.

Mückschel M, Smitka M, Hermann A, von der Hagen M, Beste C. Brain structure & function. 2016;221(4):2251-7.

DOI: 10.1007/s00429-015-1041-8   ·   PubMed

11. Effects of copper toxicity on response inhibition processes: a study in Wilson's disease.

Stock AK, Reuner U, Gohil K, Beste C. Archives of toxicology. 2016;90(7):1623-30.

DOI: 10.1007/s00204-015-1609-3   ·   PubMed

12. Behavioral and neurophysiological evidence for increased cognitive flexibility in late childhood.

Wolff N, Roessner V, Beste C. Scientific reports. 2016;6:28954.

DOI: 10.1038/srep28954   ·   PubMed

13. Age-related differences in task goal processing strategies during action cascading.

Stock AK, Gohil K, Beste C. Brain structure & function. 2016;221(5):2767-75.

DOI: 10.1007/s00429-015-1071-2   ·   PubMed

14. Improvements of sensorimotor processes during action cascading associated with changes in sensory processing architecture-insights from sensory deprivation.

Gohil K, Hahne A, Beste C. Scientific reports. 2016;6:28259.

DOI: 10.1038/srep28259   ·   PubMed

15. The impact of simulated MRI scanner background noise on visual attention processes as measured by the EEG.

Kobald SO, Getzmann S, Beste C, Wascher E. Scientific reports. 2016;6:28371.

DOI: 10.1038/srep28371   ·   PubMed

16. Response mode-dependent differences in neurofunctional networks during response inhibition: an EEG-beamforming study.

Dippel G, Chmielewski W, Mückschel M, Beste C. Brain structure & function. 2016;221(8):4091-4101.

DOI: 10.1007/s00429-015-1148-y   ·   PubMed

17. Single-subject prediction of response inhibition behavior by event-related potentials.

Stock AK, Popescu F, Neuhaus AH, Beste C. Journal of neurophysiology. 2016;115(3):1252-62.

DOI: 10.1152/jn.00969.2015   ·   PubMed

18. Altered perceptual binding in Gilles de la Tourette syndrome.

Beste C, Tübing J, Seeliger H, Bäumer T, Brandt V, Stock AK, Münchau A. Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior. 2016;83:160-6.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2016.07.015   ·   PubMed

19. Neural correlates of altered sensorimotor gating in boys with Tourette Syndrome: A combined EMG/fMRI study.

Buse J, Beste C, Herrmann E, Roessner V. The world journal of biological psychiatry : the official journal of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry. 2016;17(3):187-97.

DOI: 10.3109/15622975.2015.1112033   ·   PubMed

20. Temporal relationship between premonitory urges and tics in Gilles de la Tourette syndrome.

Brandt VC, Beck C, Sajin V, Baaske MK, et al.. Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior. 2016;77:24-37.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2016.01.008   ·   PubMed

21. Effects of multisensory integration processes on response inhibition in adolescent autism spectrum disorder.

Chmielewski WX, Wolff N, Mückschel M, Roessner V, Beste C. Psychological medicine. 2016;46(13):2705-16.

DOI: 10.1017/S0033291716001008   ·   PubMed

22. Specific cognitive-neurophysiological processes predict impulsivity in the childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder combined subtype.

Bluschke A, Roessner V, Beste C. Psychological medicine. 2016;46(6):1277-87.

DOI: 10.1017/S0033291715002822   ·   PubMed

23. The neuronal mechanisms underlying improvement of impulsivity in ADHD by theta/beta neurofeedback.

Bluschke A, Broschwitz F, Kohl S, Roessner V, Beste C. Scientific reports. 2016;6:31178.

DOI: 10.1038/srep31178   ·   PubMed

24. High-dose alcohol intoxication differentially modulates cognitive subprocesses involved in response inhibition.

Stock AK, Schulz T, Lenhardt M, Blaszkewicz M, Beste C. Addiction biology. 2016;21(1):136-45.

DOI: 10.1111/adb.12170   ·   PubMed

25. Paradox effects of binge drinking on response inhibition processes depending on mental workload.

Stock AK, Riegler L, Chmielewski WX, Beste C. Archives of toxicology. 2016;90(6):1429-36.

DOI: 10.1007/s00204-015-1565-y   ·   PubMed

26. Interacting sources of interference during sensorimotor integration processes.

Mückschel M, Stock AK, Dippel G, Chmielewski W, Beste C. NeuroImage. 2016;125:342-349.

DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.09.075   ·   PubMed

27. Questioning the role of the frontopolar cortex in multi-component behavior--a TMS/EEG study.

Gohil K, Dippel G, Beste C. Scientific reports. 2016;6:22317.

DOI: 10.1038/srep22317   ·   PubMed

28. The system neurophysiological basis of non-adaptive cognitive control: Inhibition of implicit learning mediated by right prefrontal regions.

Stock AK, Steenbergen L, Colzato L, Beste C. Human brain mapping. 2016;37(12):4511-4522.

DOI: 10.1002/hbm.23325   ·   PubMed