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The structure of motor programming: Evidence from reaction times and lateralized readiness potentials |
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| Authors: | Lu Xu Werner Sommer Hiroaki Masaki |
| Affiliation: | 1. Graduate School of Sport Sciences, Waseda University, Saitama, Japan;2. Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan;3. Department of Psychology, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany;4. Faculty of Sport Sciences, Waseda University, Saitama, Japan |
| Abstract: | There is a widely accepted notion that movement elements are assembled prior to movement execution in a central motor programming stage. However, it is not clear how this stage is structured—whether it is a unitary stage allowing different motor parameters to cross talk or whether there are several independent processes dealing with each motor parameter. We addressed this question by orthogonally manipulating two movement‐related factors: response sequence complexity and movement duration. Both factors yielded main effects on reaction time but no interaction. Additive effects of both factors on the onsets of response‐ but not stimulus‐synchronized lateralized readiness potentials suggest separable motoric loci of sequence complexity and duration. These findings are at variance with the notion of a unitary movement programming stage. |
| Keywords: | Movement preparation Mental chronometry Lateralized readiness potential Finger tapping Kinematic parameter |