Response inhibition

Response inhibition is the suppression or cancellation of an action that would otherwise be made. It is one aspect of inhibitory control. For example, in a stop-signal task a person prepares a button press in response to a go cue, but occasionally receives a later signal to stop. Successful stopping requires a change to an already prepared response.

The delay between go and stop signals matters: a very late stop signal leaves less opportunity for cancellation. Models use performance across delays to estimate stop-signal reaction time, rather than directly timing an invisible mental event. Brain lesion studies can test whether damage to a region is associated with impaired stopping, while interpretation still depends on task demands and the measurement model.^[ref]