It Pays to Prepare (HMNS Seminars)

Event Details

Date:

Friday, 11 August 2017

Time:

12:00 pm - 12:30 pm

Room:

Room 219

UQ Location:

Human Movement Studies Building (St Lucia)

URL:

http://www.hms.uq.edu.au/

Event category(s):

Full Description:: Predictive motor planning depends on expected value of alternative response options.

Movement execution is preceded by preparatory processes in the central nervous system. Here we investigated if the parallel preparation of two alternative response options is influenced by context-dependent expectations about the next required movement. We used EEG to test if participants prepare more for more rewarding or more frequently required response options.

We found that participants responded faster to repeated or rewarded targets. Relatively stronger EEG activity over the hemisphere contralateral to the repeated/rewarded hand further suggested increased neural preparation of more advantageous actions.

This increased preparation likely contributes to behavioural biases towards repeated or rewarded actions.

Dr Eva-Maria Reuter is a UQ Postdoctoral Fellow at HMNS. During her Fellowship, she aims to reveal the interrelation between attention and motor adaptation in healthy young and older adults.