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The Role of the Medial Frontal Cortex in Cognitive Control
K. Richard Ridderinkhof,1,2*Markus Ullsperger,3Eveline A. Crone,4Sander Nieuwenhuis5
Adaptive goal-directed behavior involves monitoring of ongoingactions and performance outcomes, and subsequent adjustmentsof behavior and learning. We evaluate new findings in cognitiveneuroscience concerning cortical interactions that subservethe recruitment and implementation of such cognitive control.A review of primate and human studies, along with a meta-analysisof the human functional neuroimaging literature, suggest thatthe detection of unfavorable outcomes, response errors, responseconflict, and decision uncertainty elicits largely overlappingclusters of activation foci in an extensive part of the posteriormedial frontal cortex (pMFC). A direct link is delineated betweenactivity in this area and subsequent adjustments in performance.Emerging evidence points to functional interactions betweenthe pMFC and the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC), so that monitoring-relatedpMFC activity serves as a signal that engages regulatory processesin the LPFC to implement performance adjustments.
1 Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Roetersstraat 15, 1018 WB Amsterdam, Netherlands. 2 Department of Psychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, Netherlands. 3 Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstrasse 1A, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. 4 Center for Mind and Brain, University of California Davis, 202 Cousteau Place, Suite 201, Davis, CA 95616, USA. 5 Department of Cognitive Psychology, Vrije Universiteit, Van der Boechorststraat 1, 1081 BT Amsterdam, Netherlands.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: K.R.Ridderinkhof{at}uva.nl
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