Detecting traces of consciousness in the process of intending to act

Abstract

An intention to act has different onsets when it is measured in different ways. When participants provide a self-initiated report on the onset of their awareness of intending to act, the report occurs around 150 ms prior to action. However, when the same participants are repeatedly asked about their awareness of intending at different points in time, the onset of intending is found up to 2 s prior to action. This ‘probed’ awareness has its onset around the same time as the brain starts preparing the act, as measured using EEG. First of all, this undermines straightforward interpretations about the temporal relation between unconscious brain states and conscious intentions and actions. Secondly, we suggest that these results present a problem for the view that intentions are mental states occurring at a single point in time. Instead, we suggest the results to support the interpretation of an intention to act as a multistage process developing over time. This process of intending seems to develop during the process of acting, leaving reportable traces in consciousness at certain points along the road.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00221-016-4600-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Prospective and retrospective contributions to intention awareness in voluntary action

“…Overall, our findings show that intention awareness in voluntary action relies on both prospective and retrospective components, and we describe here how these two factors are dynamically integrated over time.integrative model that views awareness of intention as a process extended in time during which prospective and retrospective effects might be integrated (Lau et al 2007; Douglas et al. 2015;Verbaarschot et al 2016). Comparator models of action control suggest that efferent copies of motor commands and sensory feedback after action execution are integrated, and these efferent copies are postulated to carry different types of information about the movement characteristics, including when it will be executed (Wolpert and Kawato 1998).We suggest that a similar integration mechanism is in play for intention awareness that is over and above the prospective and retrospective effects.…”

“…integrative model that views awareness of intention as a process extended in time during which prospective and retrospective effects might be integrated (Lau et al 2007; Douglas et al. 2015;Verbaarschot et al 2016). Comparator models of action control suggest that efferent copies of motor commands and sensory feedback after action execution are integrated, and these efferent copies are postulated to carry different types of information about the movement characteristics, including when it will be executed (Wolpert and Kawato 1998).…”

Meta-awareness as a solution to the problem of Awareness of Intention

“…1.: Vlevo: znázornění časové souvztažnosti jednotlivých událostí předcházejících okamžiku stisku tlačítka (čas 0 s). Upraveno dle (Verbaarschot, Haselager, Farquhar, & Desain, 2015). Vpravo: schéma mozku s vyznačenými oblastmi pre-SMA, SMA a IPL.…”

“…V současné době probíhá výzkum metodologických aspektů Matsuhashi paradigmatu (Verbaarschot, Haselager, & Farquhar, 2019) a také porovnání Matsuhashiho a Libetova paradigmatu přímo v jedné studii (Verbaarschot et al, 2015). V českém prostředí je na toto téma realizován výzkum v Národním ústavu duševního zdraví, kde se zkoumá souvislost gamma oscilací v oblasti IPL s meta-awareness of intention.…”

“… NCC -Neurální koreláty vědomí, post-NCC -procesy navazující na neurální koreláty vědomí, jako například verbální výpověď (Tsuchiya, Wilke, Frässle, & Lamme, 2015).11 Stop-signál je v tomto případě zvukový veto signál (tón), na který má subjekt zareagovat zastavením své činnosti, podobně jako no-go stimul v GO/NOGO task.12 Matsuhashiho T-time bývá reportován až 1,42 s před pohybem, zatímco libetovský W-time až 0,2 s(Verbaarschot et al, 2015).13 Zde nelze hovořit o "reportování" v pravém smyslu.…”