Action Monitoring and Medial Frontal Cortex: Leading Role of Supplementary Motor Area

Abstract

Oops, That's Not Right… Evaluating our actions, and detecting our errors, is crucial for adaptive behavior. These fundamental executive functions are intensively studied in cognitive and social neuroscience, but their anatomical basis remains poorly characterized. Using intracerebral electroencephalography in patients being prepared for epilepsy surgery, Bonini et al. (p. 888 ) found that, contrary to what is widely assumed, the supplementary motor area, and not the anterior cingulate cortex, plays a leading role in these processes. The data provide a precise spatio-temporal description of the cortical network underlying action monitoring and error processing.