Action stopping

Imagine yourself carrying out an everyday behavior that you have performed hundreds or even thousands of times, like standing at a traffic light, getting ready to cross the street. Now imagine your usually appropriate behavior—walking on green—is suddenly rendered highly dangerous by unusual circumstances, like a car speeding toward the crosswalk that is not slowing down. In scenarios like these, humans can rely upon a remarkable ability to stop their actions, even after their initiation. Underlying this ability to stop such prepotent actions is inhibitory control. Once an already-initiated movement is recognized as not (or no longer) appropriate, inhibitory control processes can intercept and stop the action. This article provides an introductory overview on the purported neural mechanisms underlying inhibitory motor control during action-stopping in the human brain and discusses the current state of basic knowledge in the field.