Aiming for the bull's eye: Preparing for throwing investigated with event-related brain potentials

We explored the feasibility of investigating complex goal-directed actions with event-related brain potentials by studying the aiming phase of throwing. A virtual reality environment was set up, allowing aimed throws at distant targets, with participants standing upright and moving relatively unrestrained. After a separate practice session, the contingent negative variation (CNV) was measured during preparation for a simple button release, unaimed throws, and aimed throws at targets of two levels of difficulty. Consistent with expectations, CNV amplitude was larger for all throwing conditions compared to button release. It further increased with task difficulty in the aimed throwing conditions, reflecting the increasing motor programming demands for more difficult goal-directed actions. Therefore, investigating throwing as an instance of complex goal-directed action with ERPs is feasible, opening interesting perspectives for future research.