Attention for action during error correction

• Published in: Progress in brain research Vol. 176; p. 227
• Main Authors: Sharika, K M, Ray, Supriya, Murthy, Aditya
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands 2009
• Subjects: Attention - physiology; Cognition - physiology; Goals; Humans; Inhibition (Psychology); Models, Psychological; Photic Stimulation - methods; Prefrontal Cortex - physiology; Reaction Time - physiology; Saccades - physiology; Time Factors; Visual Fields - physiology
• ISSN: 1875-7855
• DOI: 10.1016/S0079-6123(09)17613-6

While the role of attention in selecting visual attributes is well acknowledged, relatively less is known about the mechanisms that facilitate the selection of actions during goal-directed behaviors. The notion of an executive attention has provided a particularly fruitful framework to understand how the brain coordinates the selection of appropriate modules in a sequence that optimizes behavior. However, to do this, theorists have recognized the need to parcel out this unitary system into subcomponents. Two modules that have been commonly invoked are performance monitoring and response inhibition. Visuomotor control of eye movements provides an elegant model system to investigate these mechanisms of selection and control specially occurring during "double-step" tasks in which goals are suddenly changed, demanding inhibition and error detection/correction. Here, we describe our work that has focused on the executive mechanisms that regulate the production of saccadic movements during double-step tasks in different cognitive contexts and target-shift double-step tasks. By examining the pattern of response in the context of quantitative models of saccadic reaction times, we provide behavioral evidence of predictive error correction that produces fast, corrective responses. The predictions from these behavioral experiments were also tested and supported by analyzing neural data from the frontal cortex of monkeys performing similar tasks. Finally, we present data that tested the possibility of an interaction between the inhibitory control and error correction and suggest a model in which predictive error correction may be engaged when the likelihood of error is high. We propose that these results when used in conjunction with electrophysiological recordings, may provide an important approach to understand how error detection/correction and inhibition, two vital cogs in the functioning of executive control, may interact to govern goal-directed behaviors.