PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Does your brain know you want to move before you know it yourself?

Neural activity in brain motor area largely coincides in time with the onset of the experience of intention

2025-04-17
(Press-News.org) Researchers led by Jean-Paul Noel at the University of Minnesota, United States, have decoupled intentions, actions and their effects by manipulating the brain-machine interface that allows a person with otherwise paralyzed arms and legs to squeeze a ball when they want to. Published in the open-access journal PLOS Biology on April 17th, the study reveals temporal binding between intentions and actions, which makes actions seem to happen faster when they are intentional.

Separating intentions from actions was made possible because of a brain-machine interface. The participant was paralyzed with damage to their C4/C5 vertebrae and had 96 electrodes implanted in the hand region of their motor cortex. As they tried to squeeze a ball, a machine-learning algorithm looked at all the signals coming to the electrodes, and learned which activity pattern meant “squeeze” (close) and which meant “relax” (open). Once learned, the machine could send an electrical signal to the appropriate hand muscles, allowing the participant to squeeze the ball, which then delivered a sound. On average, the participant perceived the time from intention to action to be 71 ms, which was slightly faster than the real time duration.

The heart of the study involved systematically removing each part of the chain of events. By randomly stimulating the participant’s hand to squeeze the ball, the researchers were able to eliminate intentions. In this case, actions were judged to occur much later. On the other hand, when the participant tried to squeeze the ball, but actions were prevented by not stimulating the hand, intentions were perceived to happen much earlier if the sound was still played after the machine decoded the intention. Perceived timing did not change if the sound was not played. These results indicated a compressed temporal binding between intention and action. Recordings from the electrodes, which normally cannot be done in humans, showed that the motor cortex encodes these intensions.

The authors add, “The work builds on a long tradition trying to establish the temporal relationship between moving, the onset of the subjective experience of intending the movement, and the neural correlates of this intention. While there have been quite a number of non-invasive studies on this topic, only a single study prior to our was able to measure single neurons - the gold-standard in neuroscience - in humans while asking them to report when they first ‘felt the urge to move’.”

The authors continue, “This prior work (Fried et al., 2011) showed that certain brain areas (all in the frontal cortex) know about the intention to move up to a second prior to when we experience that intention. You can imagine this created quite the debate regarding whether humans have free will or not. Our study contributes to this debate by recording single neurons in the primary motor cortex. We show that firing of neurons in this area (the last cortical node before the spinal cord, which ultimately elicits movements) co-occur with the subjective experience of intending a movement.”

The authors conclude, “The work would have not been possible without expertise from a number of contributors, including neurosurgeons, neuroengineers and neuroscientists, among others.”

 

In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Biology: https://plos.io/421hAZm

Citation: Noel J-P, Bockbrader M, Bertoni T, Colachis S, Solca M, Orepic P, et al. (2025) Neuronal responses in the human primary motor cortex coincide with the subjective onset of movement intention in brain–machine interface-mediated actions. PLoS Biol 23(4): e3003118. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003118

Author countries: United States, Switzerland, United Kingdom

Funding: AS is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant PP00P3 163951/1; www.snf.ch), OB is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (www.snf.ch) and the Bertarelli Foundation (https://www.fondation-bertarelli.org/). MB was supported by the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation (Grant number: 651289; chnfoundation.org) and State of Ohio Research Incentive Third Frontier Fund (https://development.ohio.gov/business/third-frontier-and-technology). JPN is supported by NIH NINDS R00NS128075 (https://www.ninds.nih.gov/) and an Alfred Sloan Research Fellowship (https://sloan.org/). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Bluetooth-based technology could help older adults stay independent

2025-04-17
A new Bluetooth-based positioning system could offer healthcare systems a low-energy, low-cost method of tracking older adults’ mobility, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS Digital Health by Qiyin Fang of McMaster University, Canada, and colleagues. Global Positioning System (GPS) is the dominant positioning technology today, but its use indoors is limited due to the difficulty in communicating with GPS satellites. However, the knowledge of a person’s position is critical for many real-time healthcare applications, ...

Breaking the American climate silence

2025-04-17
Americans are more likely to discuss climate change with family and friends if they feel worried or at risk, perceive society as supportive of pro-climate behaviors or see global warming depicted in the media, according to a study published April 17, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS Climate by Margaret Orr from George Mason University College of Humanities and Social Sciences in Fairfax, Virginia, and colleagues. Curbing global warming’s effects requires systemic changes and government policies to reduce carbon emissions. Among individual climate actions (e.g., ...

Groundbreaking study uncovers how our brain learns

2025-04-17
How do we learn something new? How do tasks at a new job, lyrics to the latest hit song or directions to a friend’s house become encoded in our brains? The broad answer is that our brains undergo adaptations to accommodate new information. In order to follow a new behavior or retain newly introduced information, the brain’s circuity undergoes change. Such modifications are orchestrated across trillions of synapses — the connections between individual nerve cells, called neurons — where brain communication takes place. In an intricately coordinated ...

Sugar-mimicking molecule central to virulence of a common crop disease, study finds

2025-04-17
UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 19:00 BST / 14:00 ET THURSDAY 17 APRIL 2025 Sugar-mimicking molecule central to virulence of a common crop disease, study finds In plants, the space between cells is a key battleground during infection. To avoid recognition in this space, a strain of the bacterial tomato disease Pseudomonas syringae manipulates plants by producing a substance called glycosyrin. This substance suppresses the immune response and allows the bacteria to remain unnoticed. A new study led by the University of Oxford has revealed ...

Surprise: Synapses on single neurons follow distinct rules during learning

2025-04-17
Shedding light on how the brain fine-tunes its wiring during learning, a new study finds that different dendritic segments of a single neuron follow distinct rules. The findings challenge the idea that neurons follow a single learning strategy and offer a new perspective on how the brain learns and adapts behavior. The brain's remarkable ability to learn and adapt is rooted in its capacity to modify the connections within its neural circuits – a phenomenon known as synaptic plasticity, in which specific synapses are altered to reshape neural activity and support behavioral change. Neurons, unlike most other cell types, are characterized by their intricate, ...

Fresh insights into why solid-state batteries fail could inform longer-lasting batteries

2025-04-17
Solid-state lithium batteries fail for the same reason over-bent paperclips snap – metal fatigue in the anode itself, according to a new study. The findings, which show that this fatigue follows well-documented mechanical behavior, provide a quantitative framework for predicting the cycle life of solid-state batteries, enabling new pathways for designing longer-lasting and safer energy storage systems. Solid-state lithium metal batteries (SSBs) promise both high energy and improved safety by combining a lithium ...

Curiosity rover identifies carbonates, providing evidence of a carbon cycle on ancient Mars

2025-04-17
NASA’s Curiosity rover has uncovered a hidden chemical archive of ancient Mars’ atmosphere, which suggests that large amounts of carbon dioxide have been locked into the planet’s crust, according to a new study. The findings provide in situ evidence that a carbon cycle once operated on ancient Mars and offer new insights into the planet’s past climate. The Martian landscape shows clear signs that liquid water once flowed across its surface, which would have required ...

Up to 17% of global cropland contaminated by toxic heavy metal pollution, study estimates

2025-04-17
Based on data from over 1000 regional studies combined with machine learning, researchers estimate that as many as 1.4 billion people live in areas with soil dangerously polluted by heavy metals like arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, nickel, and lead. The study reveals a global risk, but also a previously unrecognized high-risk, metal-enriched zone in low-latitude Eurasia, in particular. The growth in demand for critical metals means toxic heavy metal pollution in soils is only likely to worsen. “We hope that the global soil pollution data presented in this report will ...

Curiosity rover finds large carbon deposits on Mars

2025-04-17
Research from NASA’s Curiosity rover has found evidence of a carbon cycle on ancient Mars, bringing scientists closer to an answer on whether the Red Planet was ever capable of supporting life. Lead author Dr. Ben Tutolo, PhD, an associate professor with the Department of Earth, Energy and Environment in the Faculty of Science at the University of Calgary, is a participating scientist on the NASA Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover team. The team is working to understand climate transitions and habitability on ancient Mars as Curiosity explores Gale Crater. The paper, published this week in the journal Science, reveals that ...

CHOP, Penn Medicine researchers use deep learning algorithm to pinpoint potential disease-causing variants in non-coding regions of the human genome

2025-04-17
Philadelphia, April 17, 2025 – Researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn Medicine) have successfully employed an algorithm to identify potential mutations which increase disease risk in the noncoding regions our DNA, which make up the vast majority of the human genome. The findings could serve as the basis for detecting disease-associated variants in a range of common diseases. The findings were published online today by the American Journal of Human Genetics. While certain sections ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Study unexpectedly finds living in rural, rather than urban environments in first five years of life could be a risk factor for developing type 1 diabetes

Editorial urges deeper focus on heart-lung interactions in pulmonary vascular disease

Five University of Tennessee faculty receive Fulbright Awards

5 advances to protect water sources, availability

OU Scholar awarded Fulbright for Soviet cinema research

Brain might become target of new type 1 diabetes treatments

‘Shore Wars:’ New research aims to resolve coastal conflict between oysters and mangroves, aiding restoration efforts

Why do symptoms linger in some people after an infection? A conversation on post-acute infection syndromes

Study reveals hidden drivers of asthma flare-ups in children

Physicists decode mysterious membrane behavior

New insights about brain receptor may pave way for next-gen mental health drugs

Melanoma ‘sat-nav’ discovery could help curb metastasis

When immune commanders misfire: new insights into rheumatoid arthritis inflammation

SFU researchers develop a new tool that brings blender-like lighting control to any photograph

Pups in tow, Yellowstone-area wolves trek long distances to stay near prey

AI breakthrough unlocks 'new' materials to replace lithium-ion batteries

Making molecules make sense: A regional explanation method reveals structure–property relationships

Partisan hostility, not just policy, drives U.S. protests

The Journal of Nuclear Medicine Ahead-of-Print Tip Sheet: August 1, 2025

Young human blood serum factors show potential to rejuvenate skin through bone marrow

Large language models reshape the future of task planning

Narrower coverage of MS drugs tied to higher relapse risk

Researchers harness AI-powered protein design to enhance T-cell based immunotherapies

Smartphone engagement during school hours among US youths

Online reviews of health care facilities

MS may begin far earlier than previously thought

New AI tool learns to read medical images with far less data

Announcing XPRIZE Healthspan as Tier 5 Sponsor of ARDD 2025

Announcing Immortal Dragons as Tier 4 Sponsor of ARDD 2025

Reporting guideline for chatbot health advice studies

[Press-News.org] Does your brain know you want to move before you know it yourself?
Neural activity in brain motor area largely coincides in time with the onset of the experience of intention