Inhibitory control in mind and brain: The mathematics and neurophysiology of the underlying computation

Abstract

We develop desiderata for a computational theory of response inhibition that links mathematical psychology with neuroscience. The theory must be explicitmathematically and computationally, and grounded in behavior and neurophysiology. The theory must provide quantitative accounts of complexities of behavior in response inhibition tasks and must predict the neural activity that underlies performance. We evaluate three current theories of response inhibition in the stop signal paradigm using these desiderata, and we find that one theory fulfills the desideratabetter than the others.