Right Inferior Frontal Gyrus and Motor Response Inhibition: A Real-Time fMRI Neurofeedback Study
Published in MSc Thesis, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, 2014
The ability to suppress prepotent motor responses is a cornerstone of executive control, and the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG) has been consistently implicated in this function by neuroimaging research. However, whether rIFG activity is causally necessary for inhibition—or merely correlates with other cognitive processes engaged during stop tasks—remained an open question.
This thesis employed real-time fMRI neurofeedback (rt-fMRI-NF), a technique allowing participants to observe and voluntarily regulate their own regional brain activity in near-real time, to address this question. Participants received neurofeedback from the rIFG while performing a stop-signal task, providing a within-individual test of whether deliberate changes in rIFG activity translated into corresponding changes in inhibitory control performance.
The study contributes to a broader debate about whether lesion and TMS evidence for rIFG involvement in inhibition reflects a causal mechanism or a network-level confound, and adds to the methodological literature on using rt-fMRI-NF to probe causal structure in cognitive neuroscience.
Recommended citation: Sevenius Nilsen A. (2014). "Right Inferior Frontal Gyrus and Motor Response Inhibition: A Real-Time fMRI Neurofeedback Study." MSc Thesis, University of Oslo.
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