Abstract
Although medial frontal cortex is considered to have an important role in planning behavior and monitoring errors, the specific contributions of regions within it are poorly understood1,2,3. Here we report that a patient with a highly selective lesion of a medial frontal motor area—the supplementary eye field (SEF)—lacked control in changing the direction of his eye movement from either a previous intention or behavioral 'set'; however, he monitored his errors well and corrected them quickly. The results indicate a key new role for the SEF and show that medial frontal mechanisms for self-control of action may be highly specific, with the SEF critically involved in implementing oculomotor control during response conflict, but not in error monitoring.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Botvinick, M.M., Braver, T.S., Barch, D.M., Carter, C.S. & Cohen, J.D. Psychol. Rev. 108, 624–652 (2001).
Picard, N. & Strick, P.L. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 11, 663–672 (2001).
Paus, T. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 2, 417–424 (2001).
Tehovnik, E.J., Somner, M.A., Chou, I.-H., Slocum, W.M. & Schiller, P.H. Brain Res. Rev. 32, 413–448 (2000).
Schiller, P.H. & Chou, I.-H. Nat. Neurosci. 1, 248–253 (1998).
Grosbras, M.H., Lobel, E., Van de Moortele, P.F., LeBihan, D. & Berthoz, A. Cereb. Cortex 9, 705–711 (1999).
Humberstone, M. et al. Ann. Neurol. 42, 632–637 (1997).
Hanes, D.P. & Carpenter, R.H. Vision Res. 39, 2777–2791 (1999).
Henik, A., Rafal, R. & Rhodes, D. J. Cogn. Neurosci. 6, 400–411 (1994).
Walker, R., Walker, D.G., Husain, M. & Kennard, C. Exper. Brain Res. 130, 540–544 (2000).
Assad, W.F., Rainer, G. & Miller, E. Neuron 21, 1399–1407 (1998).
Hodgson, T. et al. Neuropsychologia 40, 1891–1901 (2002).
Scheffers, M.K., Coles, M.G.H., Bernstein, P., Gehring, W.J. & Donchin, E. Psychophysiology 33, 42–53 (1996).
Luu, P., Flaisch, T. & Tucker, D.M. J. Neurosci. 20, 464–469 (2000).
Stuphorn, V., Taylor, T.L. & Schall, J.D. Nature 408, 857–860 (2000).
Acknowledgements
We are extremely grateful to JR. We thanks S. Barash. This research was funded by The Wellcome Trust.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Supplementary information
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Husain, M., Parton, A., Hodgson, T. et al. Self-control during response conflict by human supplementary eye field. Nat Neurosci 6, 117–118 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1005
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1005
This article is cited by
-
Distinct Effects of Social Stress on Working Memory in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Neuroscience Bulletin (2021)
-
Cortical control of eye movements in natural reading: Evidence from MVPA
Experimental Brain Research (2019)
-
Criminal Law as It Pertains to Patients Suffering from Psychiatric Diseases
Journal of Bioethical Inquiry (2011)
-
New approaches to the study of human brain networks underlying spatial attention and related processes
Experimental Brain Research (2010)
-
Multiple cognitive control effects of error likelihood and conflict
Psychological Research Psychologische Forschung (2009)