Offline continuous theta burst stimulation over right inferior frontal gyrus and pre-supplementary motor area impairs inhibition during a go/no-go task

•Offline cTBS was applied over rIFG and preSMA to impair inhibitory control.•cTBS only impaired response inhibition and not response initiation.•Decreasing inhibition did not allow the involuntary triggering of the go-response.•The go-response is prepared after the imperative stimulus and inhibited if required.

In a typical go/no-go task a single imperative stimulus is presented each trial, either a go or no-go stimulus. Participants are instructed to initiate a known response upon appearance of the go-signal and withhold the response if the no-go signal is presented. It is unclear whether the go-response is prepared in advance of the imperative stimulus in a go/no-go task. Moreover, it is unclear if inhibitory control processes suppress preparatory go-activation. The purpose of the present experiment was 1) to determine whether the go-response is prepared in advance of stimulus identification with the use of a startling acoustic stimulus (SAS), and 2) investigate the inhibitory role of the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG) and pre-supplementary motor area (preSMA) during the performance of a go/no-go task with the use of continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS). The experiment consisted of three phases; a pre-cTBS phase in which participants completed a go/no-go and simple-RT task, followed by offline cTBS to temporarily deactivate either rIFG or preSMA (with a sham control), then a post-cTBS phase which was identical to the pre-cTBS phase. Results revealed that stimulation to both cortical sites impaired participants' ability to withhold movements during no-go trials. Notably, rIFG or preSMA stimulation did not affect the latency of voluntary go-responses and did not enable the SAS to involuntarily trigger responses. These findings suggest that preparation and initiation of the go-response occurs after the imperative stimulus, with the rIFG and preSMA involved in inhibiting the go-response once the stimulus is identified as a no-go signal.