ArticleNature communications2016
Surprise disrupts cognition via a fronto-basal ganglia suppressive mechanism.
Article in Nature communications, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 65 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
65 citing papers in PubMed, 138 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cortical beta power reflects decision dynamics and uncovers multiple facets of post-error adaptation.Nature communications · 2018Trial
- Distinct temporal patterns of beta bursts differentiate successful and failed movement cancellation.iScience · 2026Article
- Phase-Specific Dual-Site Beta Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation Differentially Influences Functional Connectivity Associated With Motor Inhibition Performance.Human brain mapping · 2026Article
- Precisely-timed outpatient recordings of subcortical local field potentials from wireless streaming-capable deep-brain stimulators: a method and toolbox.Journal of neuroscience methods · 2025Article
- Brain network dynamics predict moments of surprise across contexts.Nature human behaviour · 2025Article
- Does the stop-signal P3 reflect inhibitory control?Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior · 2025Review
- Beta tACS of varying intensities differentially affect resting-state and movement-related sensorimotor power.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Article
- Channel component correlation analysis for multi-channel EEG feature component extraction.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Article
- Auditory context-dependent distraction by unexpected visual stimuli.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2024Article
- The human subthalamic nucleus transiently inhibits active attentional processes.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2024Article
- Neural indices of heritable impulsivity: Impact of the COMT Val158Met polymorphism on frontal beta power during early motor preparation.Biological psychology · 2024Article
- Involuntary motor responses are elicited both by rare sounds and rare pitch changes.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Measuring the nonselective effects of motor inhibition using isometric force recordings.Behavior research methods · 2024Article
- Implicit Selective Attention: The Role of the Mesencephalic-basal Ganglia System.Current neuropharmacology · 2024Review
- Article
- Article
- Neural mechanisms of domain-general inhibitory control.Trends in cognitive sciences · 2023Review
- Related neural networks underlie suppression of emotion, memory, motor processes as identified by data-driven analysis.BMC neuroscience · 2023Article
- A dual-task approach to inform the taxonomy of inhibition-related processes.Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance · 2023Article
- Article
5 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Surprising events markedly affect behaviour and cognition, yet the underlying mechanism is unclear. Surprise recruits a brain mechanism that globally suppresses motor activity, ostensibly via the subthalamic nucleus (STN) of the basal ganglia. Here, we tested whether this suppressive mechanism extends beyond skeletomotor suppression and also affects cognition (here, verbal working memory, WM). We recorded scalp-EEG (electrophysiology) in healthy participants and STN local field potentials in Parkinson's patients during a task in which surprise disrupted WM. For scalp-EEG, surprising events engage the same independent neural signal component that indexes action stopping in a stop-signal task. Importantly, the degree of this recruitment mediates surprise-related WM decrements. Intracranially, STN activity is also increased post surprise, especially when WM is interrupted. These results suggest that surprise interrupts cognition via the same fronto-basal ganglia mechanism that interrupts action. This motivates a new neural theory of how cognition is interrupted, and how distraction arises after surprising events.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.