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Parés-Pujolràs E, Matić K, Haggard P. Feeling ready: neural bases of prospective motor readiness judgements. Neurosci Conscious 2023; 2023:niad003. [PMID: 36908683 PMCID: PMC9994593 DOI: 10.1093/nc/niad003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/12/2022] [Revised: 11/12/2022] [Accepted: 02/02/2023] [Indexed: 03/14/2023] Open
Abstract
The idea that human agents voluntarily control their actions, including their spontaneous movements, strongly implies an anticipatory awareness of action. That is, agents should be aware they are about to act before actually executing a movement. Previous research has identified neural signals that could underpin prospective conscious access to motor preparation, including the readiness potential and the beta-band event-related desynchronization. In this study, we ran two experiments to test whether these two neural precursors of action also tracka subjective feeling of readiness. In Experiment 1, we combined a self-paced action task with an intention-probing design where participants gave binary responses to indicate whether they felt they had been about to move when a probe was presented. In Experiment 2, participants reported their feeling of readiness on a graded scale. We found that the feeling of readiness reliably correlates with the beta-band amplitude, but not with the readiness potential.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisabeth Parés-Pujolràs
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, 17 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AZ, UK.,School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland.,Department of Biomedical Engineering, City College of the City University of New York, New York, NY 10031, USA
| | - Karla Matić
- Max Planck School of Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig 304103, Germany.,Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Charité-Universitäts medizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin 10117, Germany.,Department of Psychology, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin 12489, Germany
| | - Patrick Haggard
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, 17 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AZ, UK.,Max Planck School of Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig 304103, Germany
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Parés-Pujolràs E, Travers E, Ahmetoglu Y, Haggard P. Evidence accumulation under uncertainty - a neural marker of emerging choice and urgency. Neuroimage 2021; 232:117863. [PMID: 33617993 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.117863] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2020] [Revised: 02/01/2021] [Accepted: 02/09/2021] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
To interact meaningfully with its environment, an agent must integrate external information with its own internal states. However, information about the environment is often noisy. In this study, we identify a neural correlate that tracks how asymmetries between competing alternatives evolve over the course of a decision. In our task participants had to monitor a stream of discrete visual stimuli over time and decide whether or not to act, on the basis of either strong or ambiguous evidence. We found that the classic P3 event-related potential evoked by sequential evidence items tracked decision-making processes and predicted participants' categorical choices on a single trial level, both when evidence was strong and when it was ambiguous. The P3 amplitudes in response to evidence supporting the eventually selected option increased over trial time as decisions evolved, being maximally different from the P3 amplitudes evoked by competing evidence at the time of decision. Computational modelling showed that both the neural dynamics and behavioural primacy and recency effects can be explained by a combination of (a) competition between mutually inhibiting accumulators for the two categorical choice outcomes, and (b) a context-dependant urgency signal. In conditions where evidence was presented at a low rate, urgency increased faster than in conditions when evidence was very frequent. We also found that the readiness potential, a classic marker of endogenously initiated actions, was observed preceding movements in all conditions - even when those were strongly driven by external evidence.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Eoin Travers
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London WC1 3AR, UK
| | - Yoana Ahmetoglu
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London WC1 3AR, UK
| | - Patrick Haggard
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London WC1 3AR, UK
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Schultze-Kraft M, Parés-Pujolràs E, Matić K, Haggard P, Haynes JD. Preparation and execution of voluntary action both contribute to awareness of intention. Proc Biol Sci 2020; 287:20192928. [PMID: 32208835 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2019.2928] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
How and when motor intentions form has long been controversial. In particular, the extent to which motor preparation and action-related processes produce a conscious experience of intention remains unknown. Here, we used a brain-computer interface (BCI) while participants performed a self-paced movement task to trigger cues upon the detection of a readiness potential (a well-characterized brain signal that precedes movement) or in its absence. The BCI-triggered cues instructed participants either to move or not to move. Following this instruction, participants reported whether they felt they were about to move at the time the cue was presented. Participants were more likely to report an intention (i) when the cue was triggered by the presence of a readiness potential than when the same cue was triggered by its absence, and (ii) when they had just made an action than when they had not. We further describe a time-dependent integration of these two factors: the probability of reporting an intention was maximal when cues were triggered in the presence of a readiness potential, and when participants also executed an action shortly afterwards. Our results provide a first systematic investigation of how prospective and retrospective components are integrated in forming a conscious intention to move.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthias Schultze-Kraft
- Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,Berlin Center for Advanced Neuroimaging, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,SFB 940 Volition and Cognitive Control, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | | | - Karla Matić
- Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, KU Leuven, Louvain, Belgium
| | - Patrick Haggard
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK.,Laboratoire des Neuroscience Cognitives, Département d'Études Cognitives, École Normale Supérieure, PSL University, Paris, France
| | - John-Dylan Haynes
- Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,Berlin Center for Advanced Neuroimaging, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,Clinic of Neurology, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,SFB 940 Volition and Cognitive Control, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.,Department of Psychology, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,Excellence Cluster Science of Intelligence, Technische Universität Berlin and Humbold Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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Parés-Pujolràs E, Kim YW, Im CH, Haggard P. Latent awareness: Early conscious access to motor preparation processes is linked to the readiness potential. Neuroimage 2019; 202:116140. [PMID: 31473350 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116140] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2019] [Revised: 08/21/2019] [Accepted: 08/27/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
An experience of intention to move accompanies execution of some voluntary actions. The Readiness Potential (RP) is an increasing negativity over motor brain areas prior to voluntary movement. Classical studies suggested that the RP starts before intention is consciously accessed as measured by offline recall-based reports, yet the interpretation of the RP and its temporal relation to awareness of intention remain controversial. We designed a task in which self-paced actions could be interrupted at random times by a visual cue that probed online awareness of intention. Participants were instructed to respond by pressing a key if they felt they were actively preparing a self-paced movement at the time of the cue (awareness report), but to ignore the cue otherwise. We show that an RP-like activity was more strongly present before the cue for probes eliciting awareness reports than otherwise. We further show that recall-based reports of the time of conscious intention are linked to visual attention processes, whereas online reports elicited by a probe are not. Our results suggest that awareness of intention is accessible at relatively early stages of motor preparation and that the RP is specifically associated with this conscious experience.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Yong-Wook Kim
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Chang-Hwan Im
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Patrick Haggard
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK; Laboratoire des Neuroscience Cognitives, Département d'Études Cognitives, École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France
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