Successful self-control requires the ability to stop unwanted actions or thoughts. Stopping is regarded as a central function of inhibitory control, a mechanism enabling the suppression of diverse mental content, and strongly associated with the prefrontal cortex. A domain-general inhibitory control capacity, however, would require the region or regions implementing it to dynamically shift top-down inhibitory connectivity to diverse target regions in the brain. Here we show that stopping unwanted thoughts and stopping unwanted actions engage common regions in the right anterior dorsolateral and right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, and that both areas exhibit this dynamic targeting capacity. Within each region, pattern classifiers trained to distinguish stopping actions from making actions also could identify when people were suppressing their thoughts (and vice versa) and could predict which people successfully forgot thoughts after inhibition. Effective connectivity analysis revealed that both regions contributed to action and thought stopping, by dynamically shifting inhibitory connectivity to motor area M1 or to the hippocampus, depending on the goal, suppressing task-specific activity in those regions. These findings support the existence of a domain-general inhibitory control mechanism that contributes to self-control and establish dynamic inhibitory targeting as a key mechanism enabling these abilities.

中文翻译：

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动态定位可以对前额叶皮层的动作和思维进行领域一般的抑制控制。

成功的自我控制需要能够阻止不必要的行为或思想。停止被认为是抑制性控制的主要功能，抑制性机制是一种能够抑制多种精神内容的机制，并且与额叶前额叶皮层紧密相关。但是，领域一般的抑制控制能力将要求实现该功能的一个或多个区域将自上而下的抑制性连接动态转移到大脑中的不同目标区域。在这里，我们表明，停止不必要的想法并停止不必要的动作会接合右侧前外侧和右侧腹侧前额叶皮层的共同区域，并且这两个区域都显示出这种动态靶向能力。在每个区域内 训练有素的模式分类器可以区分停止动作和做出动作，还可以识别人们何时压抑自己的思想（反之亦然），并可以预测哪些人在压抑之后成功忘记了思想。有效的连通性分析表明，这两个区域通过将抑制性连通性动态转移到运动区域M1或海马体，从而有助于行动和思维的停止，具体取决于目标，从而抑制了这些区域中特定于任务的活动。这些发现支持域一般抑制控制机制的存在，该机制有助于自我控制并建立动态抑制靶向作为实现这些能力的关键机制。有效的连通性分析表明，这两个区域通过将抑制性连通性动态转移到运动区域M1或海马体，从而有助于行动和思维的停止，具体取决于目标，从而抑制了这些区域中特定于任务的活动。这些发现支持域一般抑制控制机制的存在，该机制有助于自我控制并建立动态抑制靶向作为实现这些能力的关键机制。有效的连通性分析表明，这两个区域通过将抑制性连通性动态转移到运动区域M1或海马体，从而有助于行动和思维的停止，具体取决于目标，从而抑制了这些区域中特定于任务的活动。这些发现支持域一般抑制控制机制的存在，该机制有助于自我控制并建立动态抑制靶向作为实现这些能力的关键机制。