ERP correlates of action effect prediction and visual sensory attenuation in voluntary action

Sensory attenuation of voluntary action effects has been widely reported in both somatosensory and auditory domains. However, relatively little research has focused on physiological measures of sensory attenuation of visual action effects. One previous study found, perhaps surprisingly, that both auditory and visual sensory attenuation were manifested as decreased ERP amplitude over the vertex. The present study aimed to extend these findings using a novel paradigm in which voluntary actions were either associated with a visual action effect or to no effect. Crucially, this allowed us to explore both sensory attenuation (by comparing ERPs to action-triggered versus externally triggered stimuli) and action effect prediction (by comparing actions that triggered a stimulus with actions that did not). With regard to sensory attenuation, we found that attenuation of cortical responses to visual action effects was manifested in a reduced activation of a frontoparietal network, from 150 ms after stimulus. Differences between actions that produced an effect and those that did not were observed in lateralized motor potentials and may reflect the cortical correlates of the action effect prediction. We also observed a re-activation of lateralized motor activity following onset of the action effect, suggesting a common representation of action effects in visual and motor cortices. Taken together, these findings help to elucidate the cortical mechanisms of voluntary action as well as their sensory consequences and inform how our interaction with the external world is processed and controlled.