Abstract
Everyday behaviour involves a trade-off between planned actions and reaction to environmental events. Evidence from neurophysiology, neurology and functional brain imaging suggests different neural bases for the control of different movement types. Here we develop a behavioural paradigm to test movement dynamics for intentional versus reaction movements and provide evidence for a ‘reactive advantage’ in movement execution, whereby the same action is executed faster in reaction to an opponent. We placed pairs of participants in competition with each other to make a series of button presses. Within-subject analysis of movement times revealed a 10 per cent benefit for reactive actions. This was maintained when opponents performed dissimilar actions, and when participants competed against a computer, suggesting that the effect is not related to facilitation produced by action observation. Rather, faster ballistic movements may be a general property of reactive motor control, potentially providing a useful means of promoting survival.
Highlights
The mythology of the American West is shaped by liquor and Hollywood (Brown 1995)
We demonstrate that reactive movements are associated with faster execution times, and that this quickening of movement does not appear to relate to having another human as a model for one’s own action
We suggest different cortical processing routes for the control reactive versus intentional movements, and argue that faster movement dynamics may constitute a basic property of reactive movement production
Summary
The mythology of the American West is shaped by liquor and Hollywood (Brown 1995). Inspired at least by the latter, the Nobel laureate Niels Bohr considered why, during a gunfight, the man who drew first was the one to get shot. We compared the response of each individual under initiative and reactive movement conditions, rather than considering the relative performance of different participants and/or the outcome of interpersonal competitions.
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