Theta oscillations locked to intended actions rhythmically modulate perception

  1. Alice Tomassini  Is a corresponding author
  2. Luca Ambrogioni
  3. W Pieter Medendorp
  4. Eric Maris  Is a corresponding author
  1. Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands
  2. Radboud University, Netherlands

Abstract

Ongoing brain oscillations are known to influence perception, and to be reset by exogenous stimulations. Voluntary action is also accompanied by prominent rhythmic activity, and recent behavioral evidence suggests that this might be coupled with perception. Here, we reveal the neurophysiological underpinnings of this sensorimotor coupling in humans. We link the trial-by-trial dynamics of EEG oscillatory activity during movement preparation to the corresponding dynamics in perception, for two unrelated visual and motor tasks. The phase of theta oscillations (~4 Hz) predicts perceptual performance, even >1 s before movement. Moreover, theta oscillations are phase-locked to the onset of the movement. Remarkably, the alignment of theta phase and its perceptual relevance unfold with similar non-monotonic profiles, suggesting their relatedness. The present work shows that perception and movement initiation are automatically synchronized since the early stages of motor planning through neuronal oscillatory activity in the theta range.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Alice Tomassini

    Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Centre for Cognition (DCC), Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands
    For correspondence
    a.tomassini@donders.ru.nl
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Luca Ambrogioni

    Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Centre for Cognition (DCC), Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. W Pieter Medendorp

    Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Centre for Cognition (DCC), Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-9615-4220
  4. Eric Maris

    Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Centre for Cognition (DCC), Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
    For correspondence
    e.maris@donders.ru.nl
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-5166-1800

Funding

European Research Council (EU-ERC-238-567)

  • W Pieter Medendorp

Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO-VICI: 453-11-00)

  • W Pieter Medendorp

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Human subjects: The study and experimental procedures were approved by the local Ethical Review Board (Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Radboud University, The Netherlands). Participants provided written, informed consent after explanation of the task and experimental procedures, in accordance with the guidelines of the local Ethical Review Board.

Copyright

© 2017, Tomassini et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Metrics

  • 3,490
    views
  • 602
    downloads
  • 116
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Citations by DOI

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Alice Tomassini
  2. Luca Ambrogioni
  3. W Pieter Medendorp
  4. Eric Maris
(2017)
Theta oscillations locked to intended actions rhythmically modulate perception
eLife 6:e25618.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.25618

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.25618