How thoughts give rise to action. Conscious motor intention increases the excitability of target-specific motor circuits.

Autor/inn/en	Zschorlich, Volker; Köhling, Rüdiger
Titel	How thoughts give rise to action. Conscious motor intention increases the excitability of target-specific motor circuits. Gefälligkeitsübersetzung: Wie Gedanken zur Aktion führen. Bewusste Bewegungsabsicht erhöht die Erregbarkeit von zielgerichteten motorischen Kreisläufen.
Quelle	In: PLOS ONE, 8 (2013) 12, Art. e83845, 7 S. PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1932-6203
DOI	10.1371/journal.pone.0083845
Schlagwörter	Handlungskontrolle; Denken; Gedächtnis; Handlungsplanung; Handlungspsychologie; Konzentration (Psy); Motorik; Psychomotorik; Biomechanik; Gehirn; Hand; Handgelenk; Muskelaktivität; Bewegung (Motorische); Bewegungsapparat; Bewegungslehre; Bewegungssteuerung; Sensumotorik; Neurologie; Neurophysiologie; Neuropsychologie
Abstract	The present study shows evidence for conscious motor intention in motor preparation prior to movement execution. We demonstrate that conscious motor intention of directed movement, combined with minimally supra-threshold transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the motor cortex, determines the direction and the force of resulting movements, whilst a lack of intention results in weak and omni-directed muscle activation. We investigated changes of consciously intended goal directed movements by analyzing amplitudes of motor-evoked potentials of the forearm muscle, flexor carpi radialis (FCR), and extensor carpi radialis (ECR), induced by transcranial magnetic stimulation over the right motor cortex and their motor outcome. Right-handed subjects were asked to develop a strong intention to move their left wrist (flexion or extension), without any overt motor output at the wrist, prior to brain stimulation. Our analyses of hand acceleration and electromyography showed that during the strong motor intention of wrist flexion movement, it evoked motor potential responses that were significantly larger in the FCR muscle than in the ECR, whilst the opposite was true for an extension movement. The acceleration data on flexion/extension corresponded to this finding. Under no-intention conditions again, which served as a reference for motor evoked potentials, brain stimulation resulted in undirected and minimally simultaneous extension/flexion innervation and virtually no movement. These results indicate that conscious intentions govern motor function, which in turn shows that a neuronal activation representing an "intention network" in the human brain pre-exists, and that it functionally represents target specific motor circuits. Until today, it was unclear whether conscious motor intention exists prior to movement, or whether the brain constructs such an intention after movement initiation. Our study gives evidence that motor intentions become aware before any motor execution. Verf.-Referat.
Erfasst von	Bundesinstitut für Sportwissenschaft, Bonn
Update	2015/1