Working memory load reduces corticospinal suppression to former go and trained no-go cues

Environmental cues associated with an action can prime the motor system, decreasing response times and activating motor regions of the brain. However, when task goals change, the same responses to former go-associated cues are no longer required and motor priming needs to be inhibited to avoid unwan...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2021-06, Vol.11 (1), p.11544-11544, Article 11544
Main Authors: Tran, Dominic M. D., Nicholson, William G., Harris, Justin A., Harris, Irina M., Livesey, Evan J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
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631/477
Cognitive ability
Cortex (motor)
Excitability
Executive function
Go/no-go discrimination learning
Humanities and Social Sciences
Magnetic fields
Memory
multidisciplinary
Pyramidal tracts
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Short term memory
Transcranial magnetic stimulation
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Summary:Environmental cues associated with an action can prime the motor system, decreasing response times and activating motor regions of the brain. However, when task goals change, the same responses to former go-associated cues are no longer required and motor priming needs to be inhibited to avoid unwanted behavioural errors. The present study tested whether the inhibition of motor system activity to presentations of former go cues is reliant on top-down, goal-directed cognitive control processes using a working memory (WM) load manipulation. Applying transcranial magnetic stimulation over the primary motor cortex to measure motor system activity during a Go/No-go task, we found that under low WM, corticospinal excitability was suppressed to former go and trained no-go cues relative to control cues. Under high WM, the cortical suppression to former go cues was reduced, suggesting that the underlying mechanism required executive control. Unexpectedly, we found a similar result for trained no-go cues and showed in a second experiment that the corticospinal suppression and WM effects were unrelated to local inhibitory function as indexed by short-interval intracortical inhibition. Our findings reveal that the interaction between former response cues and WM is complex and we discuss possible explanations of our findings in relation to models of response inhibition.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-021-91040-6