Neural correlate of mental error detection in the human brain cortex.

Abstract

The use of long-term intracerebral electrodes combined with advances in stereotaxic neurosurgery and a complex multimethodological approach to brain research has made possible a study of the neurophysiological mechanisms of higher mental functions in the course of diagnosis and/or treatment of some chronic cerebral diseases. Investigations in which both local oxygen tension and neuronal impulse activity were recorded while the patients were performing psychological tasks have revealed selective responses in some neuronal populations of the thalamus and of the striopallidal complex, which occur only during erroneous task performance. So-called 'error detector' neurons were also found in the perirolandic and parietotemporal regions of the human brain cortex.