It is textbook knowledge that motor decisions take an amount of time that is proportional to the logarithm of the number of possibilities. We live in a world with an unlimited number of possibilities, so deciding what to do would take an enormous amount of time. In contrast to decisions, adjusting one’s movements can start in about 100 ms after the information becomes available. What distinguishes adjustments from decisions? I will present evidence that they don’t differ at all. For this, we have to rethink the notion of the motor decision. A movement is not the result of a single decision on where to go, but the decision-making continues during the movement. Adjustments are the consequence of this continuous decision process in the case of a target jump.
Neurophysiological Bases of Human Movement 2025 (King’s College London, UK) (2025) Proc Physiol Soc 67, SA05
Research Symposium: The common basis of movement decisions and movement adjustments.
Jeroen Smeets1, Eli Brenner1
1Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam The Netherlands
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Where applicable, experiments conform with Society ethical requirements.