Goal-directed behavior requires the continuous monitoring and dynamic adjustment of ongoing actions. Here, we report a direct coupling between the event-related electroencephalogram (EEG), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and behavioral measures of performance monitoring in humans. By applying independent component analysis to EEG signals recorded simultaneously with fMRI, we found the single-trial error-related negativity of the EEG to be systematically related to behavior in the subsequent trial, thereby reflecting immediate behavioral adjustments of a cognitive performance monitoring system. Moreover, this trial-by-trial EEG measure of performance monitoring predicted the fMRI activity in the rostral cingulate zone, a brain region thought to play a key role in processing of response errors. We conclude that investigations of the dynamic coupling between EEG and fMRI provide a powerful approach for the study of higher order brain functions.

Human decision-making almost always takes place under time pressure. When people are engaged in activities such as shopping, driving, or playing chess, they have to continually balance the demands for fast decisions against the demands for accurate decisions. In the cognitive sciences, this balance is thought to be modulated by a response threshold, the neural substrate of which is currently subject to speculation. In a speed decision-making experiment, we presented participants with cues that indicated different requirements for response speed. Application of a mathematical model for the behavioral data confirmed that cueing for speed lowered the response threshold. Functional neuroimaging showed that cueing for speed activates the striatum and the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA), brain structures that are part of a closed-loop motor circuit involved in the preparation of voluntary action plans. Moreover, activation in the striatum is known to release the motor system from global inhibition, thereby facilitating faster but possibly premature actions. Finally, the data show that individual variation in the activation of striatum and pre-SMA is selectively associated with individual variation in the amplitude of the adjustments in the response threshold estimated by the mathematical model. These results demonstrate that when people have to make decisions under time pressure their striatum and pre-SMA show increased levels of activation.basal ganglia ͉ fMRI ͉ linear ballistic accumulator model ͉ speed-accuracy tradeoff W hether buying new shoes, participating in traffic, playing chess, or shooting basketball, one invariably faces the dilemma of when to stop deliberating and make a decision. In many situations, it is maladaptive to ponder over alternative courses of action for a very long time. In basketball, for instance, one has to shoot the ball before a defender can block the shot. However, decisions taken without sufficient thought may lead to poor results; a shot that is taken too hastily may not go in.The foregoing example shows that decision-making involves a delicate balance between the competing demands of response speed and choice accuracy, a balance that is usually referred to as the speed-accuracy tradeoff (1). In the cognitive sciences, this tradeoff is thought to be modulated by a response threshold that determines the amount of diagnostic information that is required to make a decision and initiate an action (2, 3). Because the accumulation of diagnostic information takes time, high response thresholds lead to accurate, yet slow, decisions, and low response thresholds lead to fast yet error-prone decisions.The behavioral consequences of the speed-accuracy tradeoff are both profound and predictable, and the tradeoff therefore constitutes one of the most important benchmark findings for formal models of decision-making (4, 5). In light of its ubiquity and impact, it is surprising that relatively little is known about the neural underpinnings of the speed-accuracy tradeoff (but see refs. 6 and 7...

The present study used pleasant and unpleasant music to evoke emotion and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine neural correlates of emotion processing. Unpleasant (permanently dissonant) music contrasted with pleasant (consonant) music showed activations of amygdala, hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, and temporal poles. These structures have previously been implicated in the emotional processing of stimuli with (negative) emotional valence; the present data show that a cerebral network comprising these structures can be activated during the perception of auditory (musical) information. Pleasant (contrasted to unpleasant) music showed activations of the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG, inferior Brodmann's area (BA) 44, BA 45, and BA 46), the anterior superior insula, the ventral striatum, Heschl's gyrus, and the Rolandic operculum. IFG activations appear to reflect processes of music-syntactic analysis and working memory operations. Activations of Rolandic opercular areas possibly reflect the activation of mirror-function mechanisms during the perception of the pleasant tunes. Rolandic operculum, anterior superior insula, and ventral striatum may form a motor-related circuitry that serves the formation of (premotor) representations for vocal sound production during the perception of pleasant auditory information. In all of the mentioned structures, except the hippocampus, activations increased over time during the presentation of the musical stimuli, indicating that the effects of emotion processing have temporal dynamics; the temporal dynamics of emotion have so far mainly been neglected in the functional imaging literature.

There is growing evidence that a specific region in the posterior frontolateral cortex is involved intimately in cognitive control processes. This region, located in the vicinity of the junction of the inferior frontal sulcus and the inferior precentral sulcus, was termed the inferior frontal junction (IFJ). The IFJ was shown to be involved in the updating of task representations and to be activated commonly in a within-subject investigation of a task-switching paradigm, the Stroop task, and a verbal n-back task. Here, we investigate the involvement of the IFJ in cognitive control by employing a meta-analytic approach. Two quantitative meta-analyses of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies were conducted. One meta-analysis included frontal activations from task-switching, set-shifting, and stimulus-response (S-R) reversal studies, the other included frontal activations from color-word Stroop studies. Results showed highly significant clustering of activations in the IFJ in both analyses. These results provide strong evidence for the consistent involvement of the IFJ in both switching and Stroop paradigms. Furthermore, they support our concept of areal specialization in the frontolateral cortex, which posits that it is not only the middorsolateral part that plays an important role in cognitive control, but also the IFJ. Finally, our results demonstrate how quantitative meta-analyses can be used to test hypotheses about the involvement of specific brain regions in cognitive control.