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Research Article

An accumulator model for spontaneous neural activity prior to self-initiated movement

Aaron Schurger, Jacobo D. Sitt, and Stanislas Dehaene
PNAS October 16, 2012 109 (42) E2904-E2913; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1210467109
Aaron Schurger
aCognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), and
bDirection des Sciences du Vivant, I2BM, NeuroSpin Center, Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique, Gif sur Yvette 91191, France;
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  • For correspondence: aaron.schurger@gmail.com
Jacobo D. Sitt
aCognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), and
bDirection des Sciences du Vivant, I2BM, NeuroSpin Center, Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique, Gif sur Yvette 91191, France;
cUniversité Paris 6, Faculté de Médecine Pitié-Salpêtrière, 75005 Paris, France;
dUnité Mixte de Recherche S 975, INSERM, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Epiniére (ICM) Research Center, 75013 Paris, France;
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Stanislas Dehaene
aCognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), and
bDirection des Sciences du Vivant, I2BM, NeuroSpin Center, Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique, Gif sur Yvette 91191, France;
eUniversité Paris-Sud 11, 91405 Orsay, France; and
fCollège de France, 75005 Paris, France
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  1. Edited* by Marcus E. Raichle, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, and approved July 10, 2012 (received for review June 22, 2012)

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Abstract

A gradual buildup of neuronal activity known as the “readiness potential” reliably precedes voluntary self-initiated movements, in the average time locked to movement onset. This buildup is presumed to reflect the final stages of planning and preparation for movement. Here we present a different interpretation of the premovement buildup. We used a leaky stochastic accumulator to model the neural decision of “when” to move in a task where there is no specific temporal cue, but only a general imperative to produce a movement after an unspecified delay on the order of several seconds. According to our model, when the imperative to produce a movement is weak, the precise moment at which the decision threshold is crossed leading to movement is largely determined by spontaneous subthreshold fluctuations in neuronal activity. Time locking to movement onset ensures that these fluctuations appear in the average as a gradual exponential-looking increase in neuronal activity. Our model accounts for the behavioral and electroencephalography data recorded from human subjects performing the task and also makes a specific prediction that we confirmed in a second electroencephalography experiment: Fast responses to temporally unpredictable interruptions should be preceded by a slow negative-going voltage deflection beginning well before the interruption itself, even when the subject was not preparing to move at that particular moment.

  • resting state
  • autocorrelation
  • volition
  • power-law

Footnotes

  • ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: aaron.schurger{at}gmail.com.
  • Author contributions: A.S. designed research; A.S. performed research; A.S., J.D.S., and S.D. analyzed data; and A.S., J.D.S., and S.D. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • ↵*This Direct Submission article had a prearranged editor.

  • See Author Summary on page 16776 (volume 109, number 42).

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1210467109/-/DCSupplemental.

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Ongoing neural activity and spontaneous movement
Aaron Schurger, Jacobo D. Sitt, Stanislas Dehaene
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Oct 2012, 109 (42) E2904-E2913; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1210467109

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Ongoing neural activity and spontaneous movement
Aaron Schurger, Jacobo D. Sitt, Stanislas Dehaene
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Oct 2012, 109 (42) E2904-E2913; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1210467109
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 109 (42)
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  • Neuroscience

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