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Voluntary inhibition of pain avoidance behavior: an fMRI study

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Abstract

Behavioral inhibition has classically been considered to rely upon a neural network centered at the right inferior frontal cortex [rIFC; Aron et al. (8:170–177, 2004; 18:177–185, 2014)]. However, the vast majority of inhibition studies have entailed exogenous stop signals instructing participants to withhold responding. More recent work has begun to examine the neural underpinnings of endogenous inhibition, revealing a distinct cortical basis in the dorsal fronto-median cortex [dFMC; Brass and Haggard (27:9141–9145, 2007); Kühn et al. (30:2834–3843, 2009)]. Yet, contrary to everyday experiences of voluntary behavioral suppression, the paradigms employed to investigate action inhibition have thus far been somewhat artificial, and involve little persuasive motivation to act. Accordingly, the present fMRI study seeks to compare and contrast intentional with instructed inhibition in a novel pain paradigm that recruits ‘hot’ incentive response systems. Participants received increasing thermal stimulation to their inner wrists, and were required to occasionally withhold their natural impulse to withdraw from the compelling pain sensation at peak temperature, in both instructed and free-choice conditions. Consistent with previous research, we observed inhibition-related activity in the dFMC and the rIFC. However, these regions displayed equivalent activation levels for both inhibition types. These data extend previous research by demonstrating that under ecologically valid conditions with a strong motivation to act, both stopping networks operate in concert to enable suppression of unwanted behavior.

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Notes

  1. We use the term ‘endogenous’ synonymously with ‘voluntary’ and ‘intentional’ to denote an internal locus of the decision to perform or withhold an action.

  2. This temperature is henceforth referred to as the individual participant’s tolerance threshold.

  3. A similar pattern of results was observed with a spherical ROI centered on the peak amPFC coordinate derived from the present study. However, these results are not displayed here due to the non-independence of ROI selection and analysis.

  4. Previous studies employed either a modified version of the ‘Libet task’ (Brass and Haggard 2007) in which self-paced button presses are occasionally omitted, or a ‘ramp task’ (Kühn et al 2009), also requiring participants to occasionally withhold from responding.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Pieter Vandemaele for technical support and Paul S. Muhle-Karbe for helpful comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by the European Science Foundation’s EUROVETO project (09-ECRP-020).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Margaret T. Lynn, Jelle Demanet, Ruth M. Krebs & Marcel Brass

  2. Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Pieter Van Dessel

  3. Behavioral Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Marcel Brass

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  1. Margaret T. Lynn
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  2. Jelle Demanet
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  5. Marcel Brass
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Correspondence to Margaret T. Lynn.

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Lynn, M.T., Demanet, J., Krebs, R.M. et al. Voluntary inhibition of pain avoidance behavior: an fMRI study. Brain Struct Funct 221, 1309–1320 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-014-0972-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-014-0972-9

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