It is difficult to change the action once decided even after 0.2 seconds


by

Brendan Church

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have reported that multiple areas of the brain need to communicate quickly in order to revise decisions or cancel plans later on what has been decided. From the results of this research, it can be said that “when you quit something, the sooner you make a decision, the easier it will be.”

Why can't we always stop what we've started? Johns Hopkins neuroscientists have the answer | Hub
https://hub.jhu.edu/2017/12/07/neuroscience-susan-courtney-stop-behaviors/

Neural Basis of Cognitive Control over Movement Inhibition: Human fMRI and Primate Electrophysiology Evidence: Neuron
http://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273(17)31063-2

The Neuroscience of Changing Your Mind-Scientific American
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-neuroscience-of-changing-your-mind/

The prefrontal cortex is thought to be the part of the brain that controls planning and advanced mental functions, and until now, it was thought that this prefrontal cortex alone was responsible for correcting or stopping scheduled behavior . However, when a research team at Johns Hopkins University examined the function of parts other than the prefrontal cortex in the brains of monkeys and humans, the act of “changing will at the last minute” was performed across multiple brain areas. It has been found to be much more complex than previously thought.


by

STIL

The research team was a former graduate student at Johns Hopkins University and now a research team of Kitty Xu, who is a researcher at Pinterest . Xu et al. Asked 21 subjects to perform a task called “stop signal task”, which is often used in neuroscience experiments, and observed brain activity in real time using fMRI .

At this time, a screen was displayed in front of the subjects, and black dots gradually appeared on the screen. The subjects were instructed in advance to `` Look when you see a black dot '' and follow the instructions, but when you started to concentrate on the black dot, another color dot appeared, this time it will concentrate there You will be prompted. At this time, the subjects had to abandon the first plan of “looking at the black dots” and the brain function at that time was checked.

As a result of monitoring, it was found that the act of changing the scheduled behavior once determined requires the prefrontal cortex and the pre-supplementary motor area to communicate at a very high speed. If this communication fails or slows down, the actual behavior will be against your will. After that, when a similar experiment was performed on monkeys using electrodes, it was confirmed that a part similar to the brain activity of a human subject was activated.

According to Xu, when it comes to “judgement”, the longer a decision is in the head, the more difficult it is to reverse that decision. “To stop the planned action, it is necessary to communicate at high speed in multiple areas of the brain.” “And once the message“ Go ”is sent to the muscles, the decision to“ depress the accelerator pedal ” “It ’s difficult to change, even after a few milliseconds,” says Xu.


by Steve Webel

At this time, the person succeeds in changing the plan after 100 milliseconds with regard to changing the decision made once, but when 200 milliseconds later, the first command has already been sent to the muscle You are more likely to fail the plan change and execute your first plan against your will.

People are worried before making decisions about various matters, such as “Should I stop drinking alcohol?”, “The sooner you stop the“ drinking alcohol ”plan, It ’s less likely to run, which is very relevant, ”Xu said.

in Science, Posted by darkhorse_log