"Our research shows the brain has its own built-in system for detecting competition between two possible yet incompatible responses to a situation," explained Cameron S. Carter, M.D., associate professor of psychiatry and psychology. "When this system detects the conflict, it provides a signal that the brain may use to pay more attention and avoid the error."
The specific area of the brain linked to error-checking is the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which is located on the inner surface of the frontal lobes, in the middle of the front part of the brain.
In the Pitt study, researchers used event-related fMRI to look into the
brains of 13 people while they performed variants of the Continuous Performance
Test designed both to increase error rates and to manipulate competition between
possible responses. Event-related fMRI is a new imaging method that allows
researchers to acquire images on a trial-by-trial basis during mental tasks.
One such test consisted of subjects watching a series of numbers and looking for
a specified target -- an "X" immediately following an "A" -- and pressing one of
two buttons. A button on the left was pressed each time the target appeared and
one on the right for every other combination. Dr. Carter and his colleagues
noted a transient increase in ACC activity during incorrect responses, a
reaction that had been seen previously in studies of brain electrical activity
and attributed to the ACC. However, they also found that the
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Contact: Craig Dunhoff
dunhof@a1.isd.upmc.edu
412-624-2607
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
30-Apr-1998