Projects per year
Abstract
Everyday behaviour involves a trade-off between planned actions and reaction to environmental events.Evidence from neurophysiology, neurology and functional brain imaging suggests different neural bases for the control of different movement types. Here we develop a behavioural paradigm to test movement dynamics for intentional versus reaction movements and provide evidence for a ‘reactive advantage’ in movement execution, whereby the same action is executed faster in reaction to an opponent. We placed pairs of participants in competition with each other to make a series of button presses. Within subject analysis of movement times revealed a 10 per cent benefit for reactive actions. This was maintained when opponents performed dissimilar actions, and when participants competed against a computer, suggesting that the effect is not related to facilitation produced by action observation. Rather, faster ballistic movements may be a general property of reactive motor control, potentially providing a useful means of promoting survival.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Royal Society of London. Proceedings B. Biological Sciences |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 3 Feb 2010 |
Keywords
- movement control
- mirror neuron system
- action observation
- Parkinson's disease
- interference
- interpersonal competition
- response selection
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Dive into the research topics of 'The quick and the dead: when reaction beats intention.'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 2 Finished
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Beating Auditory Beats: Plasticity and Selectivity in the Multimodal Integration of cues to the Temporal Control of Action
Welchman, A. & Wing, A.
Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council
30/04/07 → 29/10/10
Project: Research Councils
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BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship - Dr Andrew Welchman
Welchman, A.
Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council
1/10/05 → 30/09/10
Project: Research Councils