Review

Authors: Corey G Wadsley, John Cirillo, Arne Nieuwenhuys...

Response inhibition is an essential aspect of cognitive control that is necessary for terminating inappropriate preplanned or ongoing responses. Response-selective stopping represents a complex form of response inhibition where only a subcomponent of a multicomponent action must be terminated. In this context, a substantial response delay emerges on unstopped effectors after the cued effector is successfully stopped. This response delay has been termed the stopping interference effect. Converging lines of evidence indicate that this effect results from a global response inhibition mechanism that is recruited regardless of the stopping context. However, behavioral observations reveal that the stopping interference effect may not always occur during selective stopping. This review summarizes the behavioral and neural signatures of response inhibition during selective stopping. An overview of selective stopping contexts and the stopping interference effect is provided. A "restart" model of selective stopping is expanded on in light of recent neurophysiological evidence of selective and nonselective response inhibition. Factors beyond overt action cancellation that contribute to the stopping interference effect are discussed. Finally, a pause-then-cancel model of action stopping is presented as a candidate framework to understand stopping interference during response-selective stopping. The extant literature indicates that stopping interference may result from both selective and nonselective response inhibition processes, which can be amplified or attenuated by response conflict, task familiarity, and functional coupling.

Topics: Electroencephalography; Humans; Inhibition, Psychological; Motor Cortex; Neural Inhibition; Psychomotor Performance; Reaction Time

PubMed: 35022327
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0668-21.2021

Review

Authors: Dimitri M Kullmann, Alexandre W Moreau, Yamina Bakiri...

Until recently, the study of plasticity of neural circuits focused almost exclusively on potentiation and depression at excitatory synapses on principal cells. Other elements in the neural circuitry, such as inhibitory synapses on principal cells and the synapses recruiting interneurons, were assumed to be relatively inflexible, as befits a role of inhibition in maintaining stable levels and accurate timing of neuronal activity. It is now evident that inhibition is highly plastic, with multiple underlying cellular mechanisms. This Review considers these recent developments, focusing mainly on functional and structural changes in GABAergic inhibition of principal cells and long-term plasticity of glutamateric recruitment of inhibitory interneurons in the mammalian forebrain. A major challenge is to identify the adaptive roles of these different forms of plasticity, taking into account the roles of inhibition in the regulation of excitability, generation of population oscillations, and precise timing of neuronal firing.

Topics: Animals; GABAergic Neurons; Models, Biological; Nerve Net; Neural Inhibition; Neuronal Plasticity

PubMed: 22998865
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2012.07.030

Authors: Gord Fishell, Gábor Tamás

Topics: Animals; Brain; Humans; Neural Inhibition; Neurons; Synapses

PubMed: 24742530
DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2014.03.014

Review

Authors: Giovanni Mirabella

Topics: Brain; Humans; Inhibition, Psychological; Neural Inhibition; Perception; Personal Autonomy

PubMed: 18094228
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4943-07.2007

Review

Authors: Roberta Tatti, Melissa S Haley, Olivia K Swanson...

Brain function relies on the ability of neural networks to maintain stable levels of activity, while experiences sculpt them. In the neocortex, the balance between activity and stability relies on the coregulation of excitatory and inhibitory inputs onto principal neurons. Shifts of excitation or inhibition result in altered excitability impaired processing of incoming information. In many neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders, the excitability of local circuits is altered, suggesting that their pathophysiology may involve shifts in synaptic excitation, inhibition, or both. Most studies focused on identifying the cellular and molecular mechanisms controlling network excitability to assess whether they may be altered in animal models of disease. The impact of changes in excitation/inhibition balance on local circuit and network computations is not clear. Here we report findings on the integration of excitatory and inhibitory inputs in healthy cortical circuits and discuss how shifts in excitation/inhibition balance may relate to pathological phenotypes.

Topics: Animals; Humans; Neocortex; Neural Inhibition; Neurophysiology; Synaptic Transmission

PubMed: 27865453
DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2016.09.017

Review

Authors: Roland Zemla, Jayeeta Basu

The hippocampus is crucial for the formation and recall of long-term memories about people, places, objects, and events. Capitalizing on high-resolution microscopy, in vivo electrophysiology, and genetic manipulation, recent research in rodents provides evidence for hippocampal ensemble coding on the spatial, episodic, and contextual dimensions. Here we highlight the functional contribution of newly described long-range connections between hippocampus and cortical areas, and the relative impact of inhibitory and excitatory dynamics in generating behaviorally relevant population activity. Our goal is to provide an integrated view of hippocampal circuit function to understand mnemonic computations at the systems and cellular levels that underlie adaptive learned behaviors.

Topics: Animals; Cerebral Cortex; Hippocampus; Learning; Memory; Neural Inhibition

PubMed: 28477511
DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2017.04.005

Review

Authors: Arianna Maffei

Inhibitory circuits are essential for brain function. Our understanding of their synaptic organization has advanced extensively with the identification and classification of an impressive variety of neuron groups, receptor types, and patterns of connectivity. However, the conceptual discussion regarding the role of in neural circuits still revolves around the idea that its primary role is to regulate circuit excitability. Here, I will focus on recent findings from cortical circuits and argue that inhibitory circuits are central to the integration of incoming inputs and can promote sophisticated fine-scale control of local circuits. I propose that inhibitory circuits should not be viewed so much as brakes on principal neurons activity, but as primary contributors to a variety of neural network functions.

Topics: Animals; Humans; Nerve Net; Neural Inhibition; Neurons

PubMed: 28012992
DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2016.12.003

Review

Authors: Kevin Staley

Decades of experimental work have established an imbalance of excitation and inhibition as the leading mechanism of the transition from normal brain function to seizure. In epilepsy, these transitions are rare and abrupt. Transition processes incorporating positive feedback, such as activity-dependent disinhibition, could provide these uncommon timing features. A rapidly expanding array of genetic etiologies will help delineate the molecular mechanism(s). This delineation will entail quite a bit of cell biology. The genes discovered so far are more remarkable for their diversity than their similarities.

Topics: Animals; Brain; Epilepsy; Humans; Neural Inhibition; Seizures

PubMed: 25710839
DOI: 10.1038/nn.3947

Review

Authors: Amy L Sylvester, Eva Hensenne, Dimo Ivanov...

Cumulative evidence suggests neurodevelopmental disorders are closely related. The risk of these disorders is increased by a series of copy number variant syndromes - phenotypically heterogeneous genetic disorders, present in a minority of the population. Recent models suggest that a disruption in the balance between excitatory and inhibitory neural activity may contribute to the aetiology of neurodevelopmental disorders, and may be additionally disturbed in copy number variant syndromes. In this systematic review, the databases PubMed, Embase, and Scopus were searched for studies of excitation/inhibition imbalance in relation to neurodevelopmental disorders in human copy number variant samples. A total of 53 studies were included, representing a variety of copy number variants and research methodologies. The resulting data suggests excitation/inhibition balance is indeed disrupted in different copy number variant populations, providing insight into a putative mechanism of both idiopathic and genetic neurodevelopmental disorders. However, the high level of heterogeneity in the data set, alongside emerging techniques for excitation/inhibition assessment, prompts further investigation of this field.

Topics: Humans; DNA Copy Number Variations; Neurodevelopmental Disorders; Neural Inhibition

PubMed: 40490701
DOI: 10.1186/s11689-025-09614-8

Review

Authors: Katherine C Wood, Jennifer M Blackwell, Maria Neimark Geffen...

Inhibitory and excitatory neurons form intricate interconnected circuits in the mammalian sensory cortex. Whereas the function of excitatory neurons is largely to integrate and transmit information within and between brain areas, inhibitory neurons are thought to shape the way excitatory neurons integrate information, and they exhibit context-specific and behavior-specific responses. Over the last few years, work across sensory modalities has begun unraveling the function of distinct types of cortical inhibitory neurons in sensory processing, identifying their contribution to controlling stimulus selectivity of excitatory neurons and modulating information processing based on the behavioral state of the subject. Here, we review results from recent studies and discuss the implications for the contribution of inhibition to cortical circuit activity and information processing.

Topics: Animals; Humans; Interneurons; Neural Inhibition; Neural Pathways; Sensation; Sensorimotor Cortex

PubMed: 28938181
DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2017.08.018