Motor Conflict: Revealing Involuntary Conditioned Motor Preparation Using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Motor Control

Background:

• Motor control is often viewed as a top-down, deliberate process.
• However, involuntary control by environmental cues is less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if environmental cues, previously associated with actions, can involuntarily control motor preparation.
• To examine the dissociation between learned associations and conscious expectancies in motor control.

Main Methods:

• Used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to measure corticospinal excitability.
• Participants performed a Go/No-Go task and rated expected trial types.
• Probed motor preparation during a warning cue phase.

Main Results:

• Corticospinal excitability closely matched recent cue-outcome pairings.
• This neurophysiological preparation conflicted with participants' conscious expectations.
• Learned cue-action associations, not conscious anticipation, influenced motor preparation.

Conclusions:

• Motor preparation can be involuntarily controlled by learned environmental cues.
• Conditioned responding and motor preparation operate independently of conscious expectancies.
• This challenges the notion that all motor control is driven by deliberate, top-down processes.