Neural Correlates of Online Action Preparation

When performing movements in rapid succession, the brain needs to coordinate ongoing execution with the preparation of an upcoming action. Here we identify the processes and brain areas involved in this ability of online preparation. Human participants (both male and female) performed pairs of singl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of neuroscience 2024-05, Vol.44 (22), p.e1880232024
Main Authors: Shahbazi, Mahdiyar, Ariani, Giacomo, Kashefi, Mehrdad, Pruszynski, J Andrew, Diedrichsen, Jörn
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Brain
Brain - diagnostic imaging
Brain - physiology
Brain mapping
Brain Mapping - methods
Cortex (premotor)
Female
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
Humans
Intraparietal sulcus
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Movement - physiology
Photic Stimulation - methods
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Reaction Time - physiology
Young Adult
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Summary:When performing movements in rapid succession, the brain needs to coordinate ongoing execution with the preparation of an upcoming action. Here we identify the processes and brain areas involved in this ability of online preparation. Human participants (both male and female) performed pairs of single-finger presses or three-finger chords in rapid succession, while 7T fMRI was recorded. In the overlap condition, they could prepare the second movement during the first response and in the nonoverlap condition only after the first response was completed. Despite matched perceptual and movement requirements, fMRI revealed increased brain activity in the overlap condition in regions along the intraparietal sulcus and ventral visual stream. Multivariate analyses suggested that these areas are involved in stimulus identification and action selection. In contrast, the dorsal premotor cortex, known to be involved in planning upcoming movements, showed no discernible signs of heightened activity. This observation suggests that the bottleneck during simultaneous action execution and preparation arises at the level of stimulus identification and action selection, whereas movement planning in the premotor cortex can unfold concurrently with the execution of a current action without requiring additional neural activity.
ISSN:0270-6474
1529-2401
1529-2401
DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1880-23.2024