Beneficial effects of ambiguous precues: parallel motor preparation or reduced premotoric processing time?

The present study was designed to investigate the mechanisms underlying movement preprogramming in situations where informative but ambiguous precue information is used. In a response precuing task that involved flexion or extension movements with the right or left index finger, a spatially compatible precue conveyed partial information about side, about direction, no parameter information (ambiguous condition), or no information at all. Advance movement preparation was indicated by reaction-time shortening for all informative precue conditions. The analysis of stimulus- and response-locked lateralized readiness potential onsets revealed a clear and exclusive motoric origin of the ambiguous-precue benefit. Additional analyses ruled out a strategic trial by trial choice of just one of the two ambiguous alternatives and provided evidence for a parallel preparation of both response alternatives when information only about direction or ambiguous precue information is provided

Using the readiness potential of button-press and verbal response within spoken language processing

Jansen S, Wesselmeier H, de Ruiter J, Müller HM. Using the readiness potential of button-press and verbal response within spoken language processing. Journal of Neuroscience Methods. 2014;232:24-29

Task-dependent exogenous cuing effects depend on cue modality

Task-dependent exogenous cuing effects on reaction time in detection and discrimination tasks have been ascribed to delayedwithdrawal of attention in discrimination tasks.Alternatively, these differences may be due to cue-induced response inhibition in detection tasks. Unimodal and crossmodal versions of the Posner paradigm were examined with short cue–target intervals. Targets above or below fixation required either detection or discrimination responses. Cuing effects were determined for the target-elicited P1 component and for the lateralized readiness potential (LRP). Task-dependent cuing effects on reaction time were found in the unimodal but not in the crossmodal version, but not for the P1 component. The LRP data indicated that inhibition of return in the unimodal detection task had a premotoric locus. These findings suggest that inhibition in the unimodal detection task resulted from speeded motor inhibition triggered by the visual cue