Research reportAn fMRI study of the functional mechanisms of Stroop/reverse-Stroop effects

- We examine neural mechanisms of Stroop/reverse-Stroop interferences by fMRI.
- Dissociation between the types of interference and brain activation occurs.
- Stroop/reverse-Stroop interferences are attributable to different neural mechanisms.
- Prefrontal cortex and cingulate cortex are more sensitive to reverse-Stroop test.
- Reverse-Stroop test for evaluating interference control is proposed.

Many previous behavioral inhibition studies have employed the classic Stroop and reverse-Stroop paradigm. Although an experimental dissociation has been demonstrated between Stroop interference (SI) and reverse-Stroop interference (RI), the mechanisms that underlie these phenomena remain unclear. In this study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare the functional mechanisms of SI and RI. We identified the brain regions activated by the Stroop word-color matching task using four tests: the Stroop control test (Test 1), Stroop test (Test 2), reverse-Stroop control test (Test 3), and reverse-Stroop test (Test 4). Neuroimaging results revealed that SI elicited activation in the bilateral middle frontal gyrus (BA9). In contrast, a number of other regions, including the bilateral middle frontal gyrus (BA 9 and BA10), medial frontal gyrus (BA 8), and cingulate gyrus (BA6 and BA 32) exhibited significant activation during RI. Our results indicate that there is a dissociation between the types of interference and brain activation. These findings suggest that SI and RI interference can be attributable to different neural mechanisms. It also suggests that the prefrontal cortex and the cingulate cortex are differentially sensitive to various types of interference, and that the reverse-Stroop task may be more useful than the Stroop task for evaluating interference control in psychiatric patients with frontal dysfunction.