Dissociable networks control conflict during perception and response selection: a transcranial magnetic stimulation Study.

Current models of conflict processing propose that cognitive control resolves conflict in the flanker task by enhancing task-relevant stimulus processing at a perceptual level. However, because conflicts occur at both a perceptual and a response selection level in that task, we tested the hypothesis of conflict-specific control networks for perceptual and response selection conflicts using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). TMS of the presupplementary motor area selectively disrupted the processing of response selection conflict, whereas TMS of the posterior intraparietal sulcus/inferior parietal lobule interfered with perceptual conflict processing. In more detail, the presupplementary motor area seems to resolve response selection conflict mainly when no conflicts have occurred in the previous trial. In contrast, the posterior intraparietal sulcus/inferior parietal lobule may resolve perceptual conflicts selectively when a conflict has occurred in the previous trial. The current data show the need for revising models of cognitive control by providing evidence for the existence of conflict-specific control networks resolving conflict at different processing levels.