Attention to Intention

Intention is central to the concept of voluntary action. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we compared conditions in which participants made self-paced actions and attended either to their intention to move or to the actual movement. When they attended to their intention rather than their movement, there was an enhancement of activity in the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA). We also found activations in the right dorsal prefrontal cortexand left intraparietal cortex. Prefrontal activity, but not parietal activity, was more strongly coupled with activity in the pre-SMA. We conclude that activity in the pre-SMA reflects the representation of intention.

[1]  D. Spalding.  The Principles of Psychology , 1873, Nature.

[2]  J. Winn,et al.  Brain , 1878, The Lancet.

[3]  B. Libet,et al.  Time of conscious intention to act in relation to onset of cerebral activity (readiness-potential). The unconscious initiation of a freely voluntary act. , 1983 .

[4]  B. Baars.  A cognitive theory of consciousness , 1988 .

[5]  H. Heckhausen,et al.  Readiness potentials preceding spontaneous motor acts: voluntary vs. involuntary control. , 1990, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[6]  M Corbetta,et al.  Attentional modulation of neural processing of shape, color, and velocity in humans. , 1990, Science.

[7]  G. McCarthy,et al.  Functional organization of human supplementary motor cortex studied by electrical stimulation , 1991, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[8]  G. Rizzolatti,et al.  Corticocortical connections of area F3 (SMA‐proper) and area F6 (pre‐SMA) in the macaque monkey , 1993, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[9]  J. B. Preston,et al.  Interconnections between the prefrontal cortex and the premotor areas in the frontal lobe , 1994, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[10]  C. Marsden,et al.  Self-initiated versus externally triggered movements. I. An investigation using measurement of regional cerebral blood flow with PET and movement-related potentials in normal and Parkinson's disease subjects. , 1995, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[11]  P. Haggard,et al.  On the relation between brain potentials and the awareness of voluntary movements , 1999, Experimental Brain Research.

[12]  R. Passingham,et al.  Self-initiated versus externally triggered movements. II. The effect of movement predictability on regional cerebral blood flow. , 2000, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[13]  Heidi Johansen-Berg,et al.  Attention to movement modulates activity in sensori-motor areas, including primary motor cortex , 2001, Experimental Brain Research.

[14]  James B. Rowe,et al.  Working Memory for Location and Time: Activity in Prefrontal Area 46 Relates to Selection Rather than Maintenance in Memory , 2001, NeuroImage.

[15]  G. Luppino,et al.  Parietofrontal Circuits for Action and Space Perception in the Macaque Monkey , 2001, NeuroImage.

[16]  C. Frith,et al.  Neural correlates of change detection and change blindness , 2001, Nature Neuroscience.

[17]  D Le Bihan,et al.  The Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (dlpfc) Plays a Key Role in Working Memory (wm). yet Its Precise Contribution , 2022 .

[18]  Stephen M. Rao,et al.  The evolution of brain activation during temporal processing , 2001, Nature Neuroscience.

[19]  L. Deecke,et al.  The Preparation and Execution of Self-Initiated and Externally-Triggered Movement: A Study of Event-Related fMRI , 2002, NeuroImage.

[20]  S Zeki,et al.  The relationship between cortical activation and perception investigated with invisible stimuli , 2002, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[21]  Steve Joordens,et al.  When Timing the Mind One Should Also Mind the Timing: Biases in the Measurement of Voluntary Actions , 2002, Consciousness and Cognition.

[22]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  Attention to action in Parkinson's disease: impaired effective connectivity among frontal cortical regions. , 2002, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[23]  S. Klein,et al.  Libet's Research on the Timing of Conscious Intention to Act: A Commentary , 2002, Consciousness and Cognition.

[24]  K. Zilles,et al.  Differential Involvement of Parietal and Precentral Regions in Movement Preparation and Motor Intention , 2002, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[25]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  Attention to Action: Specific Modulation of Corticocortical Interactions in Humans , 2001, NeuroImage.

[26]  R. Passingham,et al.  Multiple Movement Representations in the Human Brain: An Event-Related fMRI Study , 2002, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[27]  P. Haggard,et al.  Altered awareness of voluntary action after damage to the parietal cortex , 2004, Nature Neuroscience.

[28]  R. Passingham,et al.  The functions of the medial premotor cortex , 2004, Experimental Brain Research.

[29]  宁北芳,et al.  疟原虫var基因转换速率变化导致抗原变异[英]／Paul H, Robert P, Christodoulou Z, et al//Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A , 2005 .