Progressive increase of frontostriatal brain activation from childhood to adulthood during event-related tasks of cognitive control

Higher cognitive inhibitory and attention functions have been shown to develop throughout adolescence, presumably concurrent with anatomical brain maturational changes. The relatively scarce developmental functional imaging literature on cognitive control, however, has been inconsistent with respect to the neurofunctional substrates of this cognitive development, finding either increased or decreased executive prefrontal function in the progression from childhood to adulthood. Such inconsistencies may be due to small subject numbers or confounds from age-related performance differences in block design functional MRI (fMRI). In this study, rapid, randomized, mixed-trial event-related fMRI was used to investigate developmental differences of the neural networks mediating a range of motor and cognitive inhibition functions in a sizeable number of adolescents and adults. Functional brain activation was compared between adolescents and adults during three different executive tasks measuring selective motor response inhibition (Go/no-go task), cognitive interference inhibition (Simon task), and attentional set shifting (Switch task). Adults compared with children showed increased brain activation in task-specific frontostriatal networks, including right orbital and mesial prefrontal cortex and caudate during the Go/no-go task, right mesial and inferior prefrontal cortex, parietal lobe, and putamen during the Switch task and left dorsolateral and inferior frontotemporoparietal regions and putamen during the Simon task. Whole-brain regression analyses with age across all subjects showed progressive age-related changes in similar and extended clusters of task-specific frontostriatal, frontotemporal, and frontoparietal networks. The findings suggest progressive maturation of task-specific frontostriatal and frontocortical networks for cognitive control functions in the transition from childhood to mid-adulthood.     

Response inhibition results in the emotional devaluation of faces: neural correlates as revealed by fMRI

Although it is well established that prior experience with faces determines their subsequent social-emotional evaluation, recent work shows that top-down inhibitory mechanisms, including response inhibition, can lead to social devaluation after even a single, brief exposure. These rapidly induced effects indicate interplay among perceptual, attentional, response-selection and social-emotional networks; yet, the brain mechanisms underlying this are not well understood. This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural mechanism mediating the relationship between inhibitory control and emotional devaluation. Participants performed two tasks: (i) a Go/No-Go task in response to faces and (ii) a trustworthiness rating task involving the previously seen faces. No-Go faces were rated as significantly less trustworthy than Go faces. By examining brain activations during Task 1, behavioral measures and brain activations obtained in Task 2 could be predicted. Specifically, activity in brain areas during Task 1 associated with (i) executive control and response suppression (i.e. lateral prefrontal cortex) and (ii) affective responses and value representation (i.e. orbitofrontal cortex), systematically covaried with behavioral ratings and amygdala activity obtained during Task 2. The present findings offer insights into the neural mechanisms linking inhibitory processes to affective responses.     

Dissociations of cognitive inhibition,response inhibition,and emotional interference: Voxelwise ALE meta‐analyses of fMRI studies

Inhibitory control is the stopping of a mental process with or without intention, conceptualized as mental suppression of competing information because of limited cognitive capacity. Inhibitory control dysfunction is a core characteristic of many major psychiatric disorders. Inhibition is generally thought to involve the prefrontal cortex; however, a single inhibitory mechanism is insufficient for interpreting the heterogeneous nature of human cognition. It remains unclear whether different dimensions of inhibitory processes—specifically cognitive inhibition, response inhibition, and emotional interference—rely on dissociated neural systems. We conducted systematic meta‐analyses of fMRI studies in the BrainMap database supplemented by PubMed using whole‐brain activation likelihood estimation. A total of 66 study experiments including 1,447 participants and 987 foci revealed that while the left anterior insula was concordant in all inhibitory dimensions, cognitive inhibition reliably activated specific dorsal frontal inhibitory system, engaging dorsal anterior cingulate, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and parietal areas, whereas emotional interference reliably implicated a ventral inhibitory system, involving the ventral surface of the inferior frontal gyrus and the amygdala. Response inhibition showed concordant clusters in the fronto‐striatal system, including the dorsal anterior cingulate region and extended supplementary motor areas, the dorsal and ventral lateral prefrontal cortex, basal ganglia, midbrain regions, and parietal regions. We provide an empirically derived dimensional model of inhibition characterizing neural systems underlying different aspects of inhibitory mechanisms. This study offers a fundamental framework to advance current understanding of inhibition and provides new insights for future clinical research into disorders with different types of inhibition‐related dysfunctions.     

Hypoactivation in right inferior frontal cortex is specifically associated with motor response inhibition in adult ADHD

Adult ADHD has been linked to impaired motor response inhibition and reduced associated activation in the right inferior frontal cortex (IFC). However, it is unclear whether abnormal inferior frontal activation in adult ADHD is specifically related to a response inhibition deficit or reflects a more general deficit in attentional processing. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we tested a group of 19 ADHD patients with no comorbidities and a group of 19 healthy control volunteers on a modified go/no‐go task that has been shown previously to distinguish between cortical responses related to response inhibition and attentional shifting. Relative to the healthy controls, ADHD patients showed increased commission errors and reduced activation in inferior frontal cortex during response inhibition. Crucially, this reduced activation was observed when controlling for attentional processing, suggesting that hypoactivation in right IFC in ADHD is specifically related to impaired response inhibition. The results are consistent with the notion of a selective neurocognitive deficit in response inhibition in adult ADHD associated with abnormal functional activation in the prefrontal cortex, whilst ruling out likely group differences in attentional orienting, arousal and motivation. Hum Brain Mapp 35:5141–5152, 2014. © 2014 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Interactions between cognition and motivation during response inhibition

A growing number of studies have investigated how motivation interacts with particular cognitive functions, including attention, working memory, and other executive functions. In these studies, the emphasis has been on understanding how motivation impacts brain regions that contribute to improving behavioral performance. Less is understood about how positive incentives may actually impair behavioral performance. Here, we were interested in investigating a situation in which reward would be potentially deleterious to behavioral performance. Specifically, we hypothesized that rewarding participants for correct going would impair stopping performance. Critically, we hypothesized that the effects on inhibition would be specific, namely, not simply attributable to a speeding-up of reaction time during go trials. To investigate the interaction between inhibition and motivation, participants performed a stop-signal task during two conditions, namely, during a neutral, control condition and during a rewarded condition during which they were rewarded for correct go performance. Behaviorally, participants exhibited longer stop-signal reaction times during the reward relative to the control condition, indicating that it was harder to inhibit their responses during the former condition. Neuroimaging findings revealed that a host of brain regions were involved in stop-signal inhibition, as indexed via the contrast of successful and unsuccessful stop trials. Critically, a subset of these regions, which included the right inferior frontal gyrus, the left precentral gyrus, and bilateral putamen, exhibited significant inhibition by condition interactions, demonstrating that cognitive and motivational signals interact in the brain during inhibitory control.     

The functional neuroanatomical correlates of response variability: evidence from a response inhibition task

Intra-individual performance variability may be an important index of the efficiency with which executive control processes are implemented, Lesion studies suggest that damage to the frontal lobes is accompanied by an increase in such variability. Here we sought for the first time to investigate how the functional neuroanatomy of executive control is modulated by performance variability in healthy subjects by using an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (ER-fMRI) design and a Go/No-go response inhibition paradigm. Behavioural results revealed that individual differences in Go response time variability were a strong predictor of inhibitory success and that differences in mean Go response time could not account for this effect. Task-related brain activation was positively correlated with intra-individual variability within a distributed inhibitory network consisting of bilateral middle frontal areas and right inferior parietal and thalamic regions. Both the behavioural and fMRI data are consistent with the interpretation that those subjects with relatively higher intra-individual variability activate inhibitory regions to a greater extent, perhaps reflecting a greater requirement for top-down executive control in this group, a finding that may be relevant to disorders of executive/attentional control.     

Deficits in inferior frontal cortex activation in euthymic bipolar disorder patients during a response inhibition task

Townsend JD, Bookheimer SY, Foland‐Ross LC, Moody TD, Eisenberger NI, Fischer JS, Cohen MS, Sugar CA, Altshuler LL. Deficits in inferior frontal cortex activation in euthymic bipolar disorder patients during a response inhibition task.
Bipolar Disord 2012: 14: 442–450. © 2012 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2012 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Objectives: The inferior frontal cortical–striatal network plays an integral role in response inhibition in normal populations. While inferior frontal cortex (IFC) impairment has been reported in mania, this study explored whether this dysfunction persists in euthymia. Methods: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activation was evaluated in 32 euthymic patients with bipolar I disorder and 30 healthy subjects while performing the Go/NoGo response inhibition task. Behavioral data were collected to evaluate accuracy and response time. Within‐group and between‐group comparisons of activation were conducted using whole‐brain analyses to probe significant group differences in neural function. Results: Both groups activated bilateral IFC. However, between‐group comparisons showed a significantly reduced activation in this brain region in euthymic patients with bipolar disorder compared to healthy subjects. Other frontal and basal ganglia regions involved in response inhibition were additionally significantly reduced in bipolar disorder patients, in both the medicated and the unmedicated subgroups. No areas of greater activation were observed in bipolar disorder patients versus healthy subjects. Conclusions: Bipolar disorder patients, even during euthymia, have a persistent reduction in activation of brain regions involved in response inhibition, suggesting that reduced activation in the orbitofrontal cortex and striatum is not solely related to the state of mania. These findings may represent underlying trait abnormalities in bipolar disorder.     

Sensorimotor‐independent prefrontal activity during response inhibition

A network of brain regions involving the ventral inferior frontal gyrus/anterior insula (vIFG/AI), presupplementary motor area (pre‐SMA) and basal ganglia has been implicated in stopping impulsive, unwanted responses. However, whether this network plays an equal role in response inhibition under different sensorimotor contexts has not been tested systematically. Here, we conducted an fMRI experiment using the stop signal task, a sensorimotor task requiring occasional withholding of the planned response upon the presentation of a stop signal. We manipulated both the sensory modality of the stop signal (visual versus auditory) and the motor response modality (hand versus eye). Results showed that the vIFG/AI and the preSMA along with the right middle frontal gyrus were commonly activated in response inhibition across the various sensorimotor conditions. Our findings provide direct evidence for a common role of these frontal areas, but not striatal areas in response inhibition independent of the sensorimotor contexts. Nevertheless, these three frontal regions exhibited different activation patterns during successful and unsuccessful stopping. Together with the existing evidence, we suggest that the vIFG/AI is involved in the early stages of stopping such as triggering the stop process while the preSMA may play a role in regulating other cortical and subcortical regions involved in stopping. Hum Brain Mapp 35:2119–2136, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Empathy-related differences in the anterior cingulate functional connectivity of regular cannabis users when compared to controls

It has been reported that cannabis consumption affects the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a structure with a central role in mediating the empathic response. In this study, we compared psychometric scores of empathy subscales, between a group of regular cannabis users (85, users) and a group of non-consumers (51, controls). We found that users have a greater Emotional Comprehension, a cognitive empathy trait involving the understanding of the “other” emotional state. Resting state functional MRI in a smaller sample (users = 46, controls = 34) allowed to identify greater functional connectivity (FC) of the ACC with the left somatomotor cortex (SMC), in users when compared to controls. These differences were also evident within the empathy core network, where users showed greater within network FC. The greater FC showed by the users is associated with emotional representational areas and empathy-related regions. In addition, the differences in psychometric scores suggest that users have more empathic comprehension. These findings suggest a potential association between cannabis use, a greater comprehension of the other's affective state and the functional brain organization of the users. However, further research is needed to explore such association, since many other factors may be at play.     

Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging of response inhibition in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

BACKGROUND: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has been hypothesized to involve inhibitory control dysfunction related to abnormal frontal-striatal-thalamic-cortical (FSTC) circuitry. METHODS: We examined the neural substrates of response inhibition in adults with OCD using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a go/no-go task. Participants consisted of 12 adults with OCD and 14 healthy comparison subjects. RESULTS: During response inhibition, healthy adults showed predominantly right-hemisphere activation including the right inferior frontal gyrus, whereas the patient group showed a more diffuse, bilateral pattern of activation. Furthermore, the OCD group demonstrated less activation than the comparison group in several right-hemisphere regions during response inhibition, including inferior and medial frontal gyri. Symptom severity was inversely correlated with activation in right orbitofrontal and anterior cingulate gyri and positively correlated with thalamic and posterior cortical activations. Neither depressed mood nor medication status could account for the results. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that adults with OCD demonstrate underactivation of FSTC circuitry during response inhibition. Results suggest that the thalamus and related circuitry may play a role in the expression or intensity of OCD symptoms, whereas right frontal subregions may be involved in the suppression of symptoms.     

Effects of anterior cingulate fissurization on cognitive control during stroop interference

The midcingulate cortex, as part of the more anteriorly located cingulate regions, is thought to play a major role in cognitive processes like conflict monitoring or response selection. Regarding midcingulate fissurization, the occurrence of a second or paracingulate sulcus is more common in the left than in the right hemisphere and has been shown to be associated with an advantageous performance on tests of executive functions. However, the cognitive mechanisms underlying such behavioral differences are completely unknown. The current study addressed this issue by comparing subjects with a low and a high degree of left hemispheric midcingulate fissurization while collecting behavioral as well as electrophysiological correlates of Stroop interference. A high degree of fissurization was associated with decreased behavioral Stroop interference accompanied by a stronger and prolonged frontal negative potential to incongruent trials starting around 320 ms. This increased frontal negativity is assumed to reflect an enhanced activity of a conflict monitoring system located in the midcingulate cortex. In contrast and starting around 400 ms, subjects with low fissurization revealed an increased positivity over parieto-occipital regions suggesting a compensatory need for enhanced effortful cognitive control in this group. These results contribute to the understanding of the neuronal implementation of individual differences regarding attentional mechanisms.     

Frontostriatal activity and connectivity increase during proactive inhibition across adolescence and early adulthood

During adolescence, functional and structural changes in the brain facilitate the transition from childhood to adulthood. Because the cortex and the striatum mature at different rates, temporary imbalances in the frontostriatal network occur. Here, we investigate the development of the subcortical and cortical components of the frontostriatal network from early adolescence to early adulthood in 60 subjects in a cross‐sectional design, using functional MRI and a stop‐signal task measuring two forms of inhibitory control: reactive inhibition (outright stopping) and proactive inhibition (anticipation of stopping). During development, reactive inhibition improved: older subjects were faster in reactive inhibition. In the brain, this was paralleled by an increase in motor cortex suppression. The level of proactive inhibition increased, with older subjects slowing down responding more than younger subjects when anticipating a stop‐signal. Activation increased in the right striatum, right ventral and dorsal inferior frontal gyrus, and supplementary motor area. Moreover, functional connectivity during proactive inhibition increased between striatum and frontal regions with age. In conclusion, we demonstrate that developmental improvements in proactive inhibition are paralleled by increases in activation and functional connectivity of the frontostriatal network. These data serve as a stepping stone to investigate abnormal development of the frontostriatal network in disorders such as schizophrenia and attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder. Hum Brain Mapp 35:4415–4427, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc .     

The neurobiology and neural circuitry of cognitive changes in Parkinson's disease revealed by functional neuroimaging

Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) often develop a spectrum of cognitive symptoms that can evolve into dementia. Dopamine (DA) replacement medications, though improving motor symptoms, can exert both positive and negative effects on cognitive ability, depending on the severity of the disease and the specific skill being tested. By considering the behavioral and clinical aspects of disease‐ and treatment‐mediated changes in cognition alongside the pathophysiology of PD, an understanding of the factors that govern the heterogeneous expression of cognitive impairment in PD is beginning to emerge. Here, we review the neuroimaging studies revealing the neural correlates of cognitive changes after DA loss and DA replacement as well as those that may accompany the conversion from milder stages of cognitive impairment to frank dementia. © 2012 Movement Disorder Society     

The role of anterior cingulate cortex and precuneus in the coordination of motor behaviour

Behavioral studies in humans have shown that bimanual coordination imposes specific demands on the central nervous system that exceed unimanual task control. In the present study we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the neural correlate of this additional coordination effort, i.e. regions responding more strongly to bimanual movements than inferred from summing up the responses to the unimanual subtasks. Subjects were scanned while performing movements along different directions, either uni- or bimanually. During the bimanual condition, trajectories of movement of the left and right hand were spatially incompatible, such that additional effort was required to break away from intrinsically favored mirror-movements and to integrate movements of both limbs into a new spatial pattern. Our main finding was that the execution of spatially complex bimanual coordination as compared with the unimanual subtasks activated the anterior cingulate cortex (posterior part) as well as the dorso-anterior precuneus. We hypothesize that the anterior cingulate exerts its modulatory effect on other motor areas, such as the primary motor cortex and the supplementary motor area, in order to suppress intrinsically favored coordination tendencies. Conversely, the precuneus is likely to be involved in shifting attention between different locations in space, which was necessary for monitoring the trajectories of the left and right wrist when both limbs moved in parallel. Our findings suggest that the coordination effort during bimanual and perhaps other modes of coordinated behavior is mediated by regions contributing to higher order functions, which form an interface between cognition and action.     

Dissociable neural effects of stimulus valence and preceding context during the inhibition of responses to emotional faces

Socially appropriate behavior requires the concurrent inhibition of actions that are inappropriate in the context. This self‐regulatory function requires an interaction of inhibitory and emotional processes that recruits brain regions beyond those engaged by either processes alone. In this study, we isolated brain activity associated with response inhibition and emotional processing in 24 healthy adults using event‐related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a go/no‐go task that independently manipulated the context preceding no‐go trials (ie, number of go trials) and the valence (ie, happy, sad, and neutral) of the face stimuli used as trial cues. Parallel quadratic trends were seen in correct inhibitions on no‐go trials preceded by increasing numbers of go trials and associated activation for correct no‐go trials in inferior frontal gyrus pars opercularis, pars triangularis, and pars orbitalis, temporoparietal junction, superior parietal lobule, and temporal sensory association cortices. Conversely, the comparison of happy versus neutral faces and sad versus neutral faces revealed valence‐dependent activation in the amygdala, anterior insula cortex, and posterior midcingulate cortex. Further, an interaction between inhibition and emotion was seen in valence‐dependent variations in the quadratic trend in no‐go activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus and left posterior insula cortex. These results suggest that the inhibition of response to emotional cues involves the interaction of partly dissociable limbic and frontoparietal networks that encode emotional cues and use these cues to exert inhibitory control over the motor, attention, and sensory functions needed to perform the task, respectively. Hum Brain Mapp, 2009. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Independent component analysis of functional networks for response inhibition: Inter‐subject variation in stop signal reaction time

Cognitive control is a critical executive function. Many studies have combined general linear modeling and the stop signal task (SST) to delineate the component processes of cognitive control. For instance, by contrasting stop success (SS) and stop error (SE) trials in the SST, investigators examined regional responses to stop signal inhibition. In contrast to this parameterized approach, independent component analysis (ICA) elucidates brain networks subserving cognitive control. In our earlier work of 59 adults performing the SST during fMRI, we characterized six independent components (ICs). However, none of these ICs correlated with stop signal performance, raising questions about their behavioral validity. Here, in a larger sample (n = 100), we identified and explored 23 ICs for correlation with the stop signal reaction time (SSRT), a measure of the efficiency of response inhibition. At a corrected threshold (P < 0.0005), a paracentral lobule‐midcingulate network and a left inferior parietal‐supplementary motor‐somatomotor network showed a positive correlation between SE beta weight and SSRT. In contrast, a midline cerebellum–thalamus–pallidum network showed a negative correlation between SE beta weight and SSRT. These findings suggest that motor preparation and execution prolongs the SSRT, likely via an interaction between the go and stop processes as suggested by the race model. Behaviorally, consistent with this hypothesis, the difference in G and SE reaction times is positively correlated with SSRT across subjects. These new results highlight the importance of cognitive motor regions in response inhibition and support the utility of ICA in uncovering functional networks for cognitive control in the SST. Hum Brain Mapp 36:3289–3302, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc .     

Performance monitoring and response inhibition in anxiety disorders with and without comorbid ADHD

Anxiety disorder (ANX) is characterized by heightened arousal, psychosocial and academic difficulties, and comorbidity with other disorders, in particular, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The heightened arousal contributes to cognitive impairment by adversely affecting executive control of cognition. The nature of the effect on executive control is poorly understood. Research in this area could inform intervention, diagnostic, and etiological research. Our objective was to characterize children with ANX on measures of executive functioning, while controlling for comorbid ADHD. We compared children ages 6-14 with ANX (N=21), ADHD (N=78), ANX+ADHD (N=38), and normal controls (NC; N=40) on the stop task, a measure of performance monitoring and response inhibition. No difference was observed between NC and ANX groups in performance monitoring. Compared to the NC group, the three clinical groups showed inhibition deficits, and both ADHD and ANX+ADHD groups monitored less after responses. ANX was not associated with performance monitoring or inhibition deficits once comorbid ADHD was considered. This emphasizes the importance of controlling for comorbid ADHD in studies of cognition and anxiety.     

Inhibitory control in high-functioning autism: decreased activation and underconnectivity in inhibition networks.

BACKGROUND: Inhibiting prepotent responses is critical to optimal cognitive and behavioral function across many domains. Several behavioral studies have investigated response inhibition in autism, and the findings varied according to the components involved in inhibition. There has been only one published functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study so far on inhibition in autism, which found greater activation in participants with autism than control participants. METHODS: This study investigated the neural basis of response inhibition in 12 high-functioning adults with autism and 12 age- and intelligence quotient (IQ)-matched control participants during a simple response inhibition task and an inhibition task involving working memory. RESULTS: In both inhibition tasks, the participants with autism showed less brain activation than control participants in areas often found to be active in response inhibition tasks, namely the anterior cingulate cortex. In the more demanding inhibition condition, involving working memory, the participants with autism showed more activation than control participants in the premotor areas. In addition to the activation differences, the participants with autism showed lower levels of synchronization between the inhibition network (anterior cingulate gyrus, middle cingulate gyrus, and insula) and the right middle and inferior frontal and right inferior parietal regions. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that the inhibition circuitry in the autism group is activated atypically and is less synchronized, leaving inhibition to be accomplished by strategic control rather than automatically. At the behavioral level, there was no difference between the groups.     

Neuropsychological assessment of language functions during functional magnetic resonance imaging: development of new tasks. Preliminary report

Background and purposeDue to the complex and extended cerebral organization of language functions, the brain regions crucial for speech and language, i.e. eloquent areas, have to be affected by neurooncological surgery. One of the techniques that may be helpful in pre-operative planning of the extent of tumour removal and estimating possible complications seems to be functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The aim of the study was to develop valid procedures for neuropsychological assessment of various language functions visualisable by fMRI in healthy individuals.Material and methodsIn this fMRI study, 10 healthy (with no CNS pathology), right-handed volunteers aged 25–35 were examined using four tasks designed to measure different language functions, and one for short-term memory assessment. A 1.5-T MRI scanner performing ultrafast functional (EPI) sequences with 4-mm slice thickness and 1-mm interslice gap was used to detect the BOLD response to stimuli presented in a block design (30-second alternating blocks of activity and rest). The analyses used the SPM software running in a MATLAB environment, and the obtained data were interpreted by means of colour-coded maps superimposed on structural brain scans.ResultsFor each of the tasks developed for particular language functions, a different area of increased neuronal activity was found.ConclusionsThe differential localization of function-related neuronal activity seems interesting and the research worth continuing, since verbal communication failure may result from impairment of any of various language functions, and studies reported in the literature seem to focus on verbal expression only.     

Response selection codes in neurophysiological data predict conjoint effects of controlled and automatic processes during response inhibition

The inhibition of prepotent responses is a requirement for goal‐directed behavior and several factors determine corresponding successful response inhibition processes. One factor relates to the degree of automaticity of pre‐potent response tendencies and another factor relates to the degree of cognitive control that is exerted during response inhibition. However, both factors can conjointly modulate inhibitory control. Cognitive theoretical concepts suggest that codings of stimulus‐response translations may underlie such conjoint effects. Yet, it is unclear in how far such specific codes, as assumed in cognitive psychological concepts, are evident in neurophysiological processes and whether there are specific functional neuroanatomical structures associated with the processing of such codes. Applying a temporal decomposition method of EEG data in combination with source localization methods we show that there are different, intermingled codes (i.e., “stimulus codes” and “response selection codes”) at the neurophysiological level during conjoint effects of “automatic” and “controlled” processes in response inhibition. Importantly, only “response selection codes” predict behavioral performance, and are subject to conjoint modulations by “automatic” and “controlled” processes. These modulations are associated with inferior and superior parietal areas (BA40/BA7), possibly reflecting an updating of internal representations when information is complex and probably difficult to categorize, but essential for behavioral control. Codes proposed by cognitive, psychological concepts seem to have a neurophysiological analogue that fits into current views on functions of inferior and superior parietal regions.