Quickly preventing the retrieval of (inappropriate) long-term memories might recruit a similar control mechanism as rapid action-stopping. A very specific characteristic of rapid action-stopping is “global motor suppression”: When a single response is rapidly stopped, there is a broad skeletomotor suppression. This is shown by the technique of TMS placed over a task-irrelevant part of the primary motor cortex (M1) to measure motor-evoked potentials. Here, we used this same TMS method to test if rapidly preventing long-term memory retrieval also shows this broad skeletomotor suppression effect. Twenty human participants underwent a Think/No-Think task. In the first phase, they learned word pairs. In the second phase, they received the left-hand word as a cue and had to either retrieve the associated right-hand word (“Think”) or stop retrieval (“No-Think”). At the end of each trial, they reported whether they had experienced an intrusion of the associated memory. Behaviorally, on No-Think trials, they reported fewer intrusions than Think trials, and the reporting of intrusions decreased with practice. Physiologically, we observed that the motor-evoked potential, measured from the hand (which was irrelevant to the task), was reduced on No-Think trials in the time frame of 300–500 msec, especially on trials where they did report an intrusion. This unexpected result contradicted our preregistered prediction that we would find such a decrease on No-Think trials, where the intrusion was not reported. These data suggest that one form of executive control over (inappropriate) long-term memory retrieval is a rapid and broad stop, akin to action-stopping, that is triggered by the intrusion itself.

快速阻止（不适当的）长期记忆的检索可能会招募与快速停止行动类似的控制机制。快速动作停止的一个非常具体的特征是“全局运动抑制”：当单个反应快速停止时，会出现广泛的骨骼运动抑制。这是通过将 TMS 技术放置在初级运动皮层 (M1) 与任务无关的部分来测量运动诱发电位来证明的。在这里，我们使用相同的 TMS 方法来测试快速阻止长期记忆检索是否也显示出这种广泛的骨骼运动抑制作用。二十名人类参与者接受了思考/不思考任务。在第一阶段，他们学习单词对。在第二阶段，他们收到左侧单词作为提示，并且必须检索相关的右侧单词（“思考”）或停止检索（“不思考”）。在每次试验结束时，他们都会报告自己是否经历过相关记忆的入侵。从行为上来说，在“No-Think”试验中，他们报告的入侵次数比“Think”试验少，而且随着实践的进行，报告的入侵次数也减少了。从生理学角度来看，我们观察到，在 300-500 毫秒时间范围内的 No-Think 试验中，从手测量的运动诱发电位（与任务无关）有所降低，特别是在他们确实报告了入侵的试验中。这个意想不到的结果与我们预先注册的预测相矛盾，我们会在没有报告入侵的 No-Think 试验中发现这种下降。这些数据表明，对（不适当的）长期记忆检索的执行控制的一种形式是快速而广泛的停止，类似于行动停止，这是由入侵本身触发的。