Abstract:

As one of the most important components in human’s high level cognitive process and one of the most basic functions of the frontal lobe, inhibition refers to the cognitive ability to suppress the irrelevant or interfering sensory input, motor output, or internal process. Recent cognitive neuroscience studies showed that different frontal regions are sensitive to different interferences and inhibitions. Yet, it is still unclear how the different kinds of inhibitory functions are hierarchically organized in the frontal regions. In this event-related fMRI study, we disassociated the frontal regions that were sensitive to the inhibition caused by perceptual interference and those were sensitive to the inhibition caused by working memory interference. Results proved that the hierarchical structure of the frontal lobe in mediating different kinds of inhibitory functions: posterior regions were responsive to the perceptual competition and inhibition, whereas anterior regions responded to the working memory ones

Key words: inhibition, working memory, frontal lobe, fMRI