Event-Related Potentials in Externally and Internally-Driven Target-Selection: a preliminary study

In this study we investigated the cue-locked
(P300 and later event-related potentials components)
and response-locked electroencephalography (EEG) phenomena
associated to externally and internally-driven target
selection. For that we designed a novel paradigm, that
aimed to separate the selection of motor goals according
to the respective task rules from the actual programming
of the upcoming motor response. Our paradigm also
made possible the estimation of the onset of a self-paced
reach-and-grasp movement imagination for better capturing
the associated movement-related cortical potentials
(MRCPs). Our preliminary results indicate that differences
between the externally and internally-driven conditions
are present in the cue-locked event-related potentials,
but not in the response-locked MRCPs. Our study
contributes for a better understanding of the neurophysiological
signature of movement-related processes, including
both perception and actual motor planning, which are
so extensively used in brain-computer interfaces (BCIs).