When is the brain ready for mental actions? (An EEG study)

What is it about?

Readiness potentials in three tasks: mental calculations, imagined actions and real actions are measured and compared. In all three cases, we found similarities in ~ 1-s shifts of brain electrical activity characteristic for readiness potential.

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Photo by jesse orrico on Unsplash

Photo by jesse orrico on Unsplash

Why is it important?

These results show that: (1) the brain needs time to be ready for a purely mental task, and (2) a required preparatory interval is analogical to the one observed before intentional body movements. As such, the readiness potential represents a universal process of unconscious preparatory brain activity preceding any, including purely mental, voluntary action.

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