Hemispheric differences in the processing of visual consequences of active vs. passive movements: a transcranial...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Psychology

Background:

• Perceiving sensory consequences of actions is crucial for environmental interaction.
• Active movements show increased intentional binding and delay detection compared to passive movements.
• Left hemispheric anodal transcranial direct stimulation (tDCS) reduces intentional binding, but its role in delay detection is unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effects of left and right frontoparietal tDCS on detecting temporal action-outcome discrepancies.
• To explore polarization-dependent effects of tDCS on distinguishing self-initiated from externally generated action consequences.

Main Methods:

• Applied anodal and cathodal tDCS to frontal, parietal, and frontoparietal areas.
• Participants reported detected delays between key presses and visual feedback.
• Compared performance in self-initiated versus externally generated key press conditions.

Main Results:

• Frontal stimulation yielded the highest delay detection performance.
• The advantage for active over passive conditions was greater with left hemispheric anodal stimulation than cathodal.
• Hemispheric differences were observed in differentiating consequences of self-initiated versus externally generated movements.

Conclusions:

• The frontal cortex is generally involved in delay detection performance.
• Hemispheric differences in tDCS effects suggest distinct roles in processing self-initiated versus externally generated action outcomes.