A cortico-subthalamic circuit rapidly engages and releases inhibition of specific movements depending on the environmental context

Response inhibition is an important cognitive control mechanism that enables flexible behavior by stopping inappropriate actions. Intracranial recordings across species have identified a neural circuit that implements response inhibition via the subthalamic nucleus of the basal ganglia. However, this work has been limited to simple tasks, in which unequivocal, salient “stop”-signals require the inhibition of all ongoing responses. Notably, response inhibition in the real world is substantially different. Real-world response inhibition is selective: it occurs only after specific salient signals (‘stimulus-selectivity’) and stops only specific movements, while others continue (‘response-selectivity’). If and how the fronto-subthalamic system implements selective inhibition is largely unknown. Here, we recorded subthalamic local field potentials and scalp-EEG in humans performing a novel, selective inhibition task. Salient signals either required stopping all initiated responses (global inhibition), stopping only some responses (response-selective inhibition), or continuing all responses—i.e., ignoring the signal (which ensures stimulus-selectivity). All three signals initially triggered a common fronto-subthalamic inhibitory process, signified by a rapid increase in β-burst activity. During global inhibition, subthalamic β-bursting subsequently increased above baseline, persisting for over a second. During response-selective inhibition, this activity was delayed, which enabled a second bout of disinhibition and allowed appropriate responses to continue. Throughout this period, frontal cortical and subthalamic β-band activity were tightly coupled. This shows that selective inhibition is accompanied by rapid, context-dependent engagement and release of fronto-subthalamic inhibition. Moreover, subthalamic activity lasted substantially longer than assumed by classic behavioral-computational models. This supports recent theoretical models that assume protracted response inhibition during action-stopping.