While reading this text, pat your head and rub your stomach (if someone sees you, tell them it's OK; you're doing science). Right now you are engaging in an action that must be actively monitored and quickly
adjusted to avoid making mistakes. Over the past five years, my collaborators and I discovered that there is a specific pattern of brain electrical activity that occurs during response conflict—competition between
multiple conflicting actions when a mistake could be made. This brain activity is observed over the midfrontal cortex (MFC) and is characterized by oscillations at around 6 cycles per second (the theta band).
MFC theta is a highly statistically robust marker of the neural networks involved in action monitoring and behavior adjustments, correlates with single-trial reaction time, and predicts how well people learn from
mistakes. Despite these robust findings linking MFC theta to action monitoring, the significance of MFC theta for how neural microcircuits actually implement action monitoring and adjustments is unknown. In the
ERC research we will use computer simulations and rodent models to understand how different types of neurons in different cortical layers might use action potentials and oscillations to implement action
monitoring. The results will help us understand how the brain monitors behavior and avoids mistakes, and will also give insight into neural microcircuit organization as it relates to higher cognitive function. While
developing these computer simulations and rodent models, we will also take our human research to the next level by asking: If action monitoring in the MFC is supported by theta oscillations, does this mean that our
actions, and our ability to monitor and adjust them, occur with theta rhythmicity? To answer this question, we will develop new tasks combining keyboard typing and EEG to test how the timing of human sequenced
actions during keyboard typing (typists type in “theta”) corresponds to temporal dynamics of MFC theta.
