Chapter 28 The thalamic contribution to the emergence of the readiness potential

Abstract

This chapter discusses the reasons behind a unilateral movement being preceded by a bilateral readiness potential (RP). Unilateral self-paced movements and warned stimulus-triggered movements are preceded by bilateral slow brain waves, RP, and the contingent negative variation. The chapter proposes two possibilities. The first possibility is that the RP is the consequence of a unilateral cortical activation contra-lateral to the movement side. The bilateral emergence could be because of volume conduction or to a mirror activation via the corpus callosum. The second possibility is that there is a bilateral activation of cortical motor areas. This might be because of a bilateral corticocortical activation, for example, from the prefrontal cortex to the motor cortex or to a bilateral subcortico-cortical activation via a cerebello-thalamocortical circuit or via a basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuit.