Performance monitoring in the medial frontal cortex and related neural networks: From monitoring self actions to understanding others’ actions

• Published in: Neuroscience research Vol. 137; pp. 1 - 10
• Main Authors: Ninomiya, Taihei, Noritake, Atsushi, Ullsperger, Markus, Isoda, Masaki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ireland Elsevier B.V 01-12-2018
• Subjects: Actor; Animals; Choice Behavior - physiology; Comprehension - physiology; Decision Making - physiology; Humans; Macaca; Macaques; Medial frontal cortex; Mental Processes - physiology; Mirror Neurons - physiology; Nerve Net - physiology; Neural Pathways - physiology; Observer; Other; Performance monitoring; Prefrontal Cortex - physiology; Self; Social Perception; Medial frontal cortex; Humans; Macaques; Actor; Observer; Self; Performance monitoring; Other
• ISSN: 0168-0102; 1872-8111
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neures.2018.04.004

•The way in which MFC is involved in performance monitoring is reviewed.•The MFC’s role in performance monitoring ranges from nonsocial to social contexts.•Single MFC neurons implement social performance monitoring in agent-specific manners.•Functional interactions between mirror and mentalizing systems need to be clarified.
Action is a key channel for interacting with the outer world. As such, the ability to monitor actions and their consequences – regardless as to whether they are self-generated or other-generated – is of crucial importance for adaptive behavior. The medial frontal cortex (MFC) has long been studied as a critical node for performance monitoring in nonsocial contexts. Accumulating evidence suggests that the MFC is involved in a wide range of functions necessary for one’s own performance monitoring, including error detection, and monitoring and resolving response conflicts. Recent studies, however, have also pointed to the importance of the MFC in performance monitoring under social conditions, ranging from monitoring and understanding others’ actions to reading others’ mental states, such as their beliefs and intentions (i.e., mentalizing). Here we review the functional roles of the MFC and related neural networks in performance monitoring in both nonsocial and social contexts, with an emphasis on the emerging field of a social systems neuroscience approach using macaque monkeys as a model system. Future work should determine the way in which the MFC exerts its monitoring function via interactions with other brain regions, such as the superior temporal sulcus in the mentalizing system and the ventral premotor cortex in the mirror system.