Influence of the source of intention to move on
readiness potential of brain waves
Vindhya Seneviratne
Convergence Institute of Biomedical Engineering and
Biomaterials
Seoul National University of Science and Technology
Seoul, South Korea
Abstract— Anticipating future events is an interesting topic
discussed through generations. When it comes to human
movement prediction a premotor brain activity, termed
‘readiness potential (RP)’ is highlighted. It is an upsurge in
brain activity prior to a motor-related action which can be
registered via scalp electroencephalography (EEG). In the
current study we investigated the effect of self-generated
intention to move versus externally triggered intention to move
on readiness potential. This experiment was conducted on 12
subjects. EEG data was recorded under two major conditions;
(1) subject makes a fist voluntarily and (2) subject makes a fist
according to a random auditory stimulus. Simultaneous button
presses were used as the markers to the points of physical
movement. The occurrence of increase in brain activity relative
to the physical movement was compared in both conditions.
The results confirmed that there is a visible upsurge in the
brain activity prior to motor activities which can be recognized
as the readiness potentials. Results also showcased noteworthy
differences in the behavior of RP, suggesting that the RP can
get affected by the source of the intention to move. i.e. self-
generated intention or externally triggered intention.
Keywords— Readiness potential, Electroencephalography,
Predictive processes, Voluntary action, Brain wave
I. INTRODUCTION
Ability to anticipate events is vital when it comes to
human development. Electroencephalogram (EEG) based
prediction is one of the most investigated fields. In 1965
Kornhuber and Deecke discovered that there is an upsurge in
the brain activity which precedes the actual physical
movement by seconds [1]. This premotor brain activity
which is often termed “Readiness Potential” (RP) can be
recorded using electroencephalogram. The RP is known as a
slow negativity in EEG which can be recorded via central-
located electrodes during the couple of seconds preceding a
voluntary motor related action. Since the discovery of this
potential, there has been many studies conducted to
understand the relationship between RP and intention [2], [3],
[4] as well as between RP and motor action [5].
In order to Record RP, EEG signals must be recorded
time-locked relative to a physical movement. Once the
signals are averaged over many trials, RP is visible as a
negative potential within seconds prior to the movement
onset. Recent studies have shown that Supplementary Motor
Area (SMA) which is a brain region in the dorsomedial
frontal cortex plays a vital role in preparing for motor related
actions [6]. The RP is known to be an increase in neural
activity starting in SMA and moving to the primary motor
cortex.
XXX-X-XXXX-XXXX-X/XX/$XX.00 ©20XX IEEE
Gilwon Yoon
Department of Electronic & IT Media Engineering
Seoul National University of Science and Technology
Seoul, South Korea
gyoon@seoultech.ac.kr
The behaviour of RP can be affected by many factors.
Triziana Vercillo, Sean O’Neil and Fang Jiang have
discovered that the RP is modulated by the stimulus
expectancy [7]. On the other hand, Daniel Reznik, Shiri
Simon and Roy Mukamel have conducted an experiment
where motor action is associated with an auditory input and
have discovered that expected auditory consequences are
represented in RP waveforms [8]. Despite the fact that there
are many investigations happening regarding RP and the
intention to move the influence of the source of intention is
not sufficiently investigated. A person’s intention to
physically move can be externally triggered as well as self-
generated.
In this study, we investigated the influence of the source
of movement-intention in RP. Considering the fact that the
neural activity increases when the person focuses more on
the intention to move rather than the movement itself [9], we
expect to see a modulation in the neural activity in the
person’s motor cortex when the person’s intention is
generated along with an external simulation. Therefore, we
expect to see a significant influence of the source of the
movement-intention on RP waveforms.
II. MATERIALS AND METHODS
A. Participants
12 healthy subjects (age 26±2.26, five males and seven
females) volunteered from Seoul National University of
Science and Technology, participated in this experiment.
Before the experiment all the participants were notified about
the experiment procedure. All participants gave their written
informed consent. The study was approved by the
institutional review board (IRB) in Korea.
B. Experiment Paradigm
Subjects were seated in a comfortable chair with the EEG
recording device and the computer on a table in front of them
as shown in Fig. 1. The subjects were asked to keep the eyes
closed throughout the experiment in order to avoid eye blink
and eye movement (EOG) noise. During the recording
participants were asked to try to avoid unnecessary limb
movements and facial movements to avoid electromyogram
(EMG) noise.
The experiment consists of 6 sessions and each session is
3 minutes in duration. The task of this experiment is to make
a right fist and a left fist, each under two different conditions.
During the first session subjects were asked to rest their
hands and resting state EEG data was recorded as the control
state. Second and third sessions were to make right-hand and
 Fig. 1. Experiment arrangement
left-hand fists respectively according to a set of random
auditory stimuli provided via earphones. Fourth session was
again a resting state EEG recording. Fifth and sixth sessions
were to make right-hand and left-hand fists respectively,
voluntarily without a stimulus. EEG data was recorded
during the above 6 sessions. Subjects were asked to press a
keyboard button every time they make a fist so that it can be
used as a marker to the moment of actual physical movement.
C. Data Acquisition
EEG was recorded using LAXTHA QEEG-64FX
equipment with 8 channels activated. Six electrodes were
used to record EEG. EEG recording electrode locations were
selected focusing on the motor cortex of the brain based on
the 10-20 system. Two reference electrodes were placed on
left and right mastoids and ground electrode was placed on
the left ear. Electrode configuration is shown in Fig. 2. EEG
recording equipment was set to apply a band pass filter [0.1-
40Hz] and a notch filter at 60Hz to remove powerline
interference. The software used along with the above device
is called Telescan. Telescan is a device management
software which can control all computerized Laxtha
equipment from the computer side.
D. Data Processing
All data processing was conducted using EEGLAB
toolbox of MATLAB. Independent component analysis
Fig. 1. (a) Grand averaged EEG waveform time-locked to left hand movement (b) Grand averaged EEG waveform time-locked to right hand
movement
Fig. 2. Electrode Configuration
(ICA) was used to remove components with high
interference and artefact rejection by observation was
conducted to remove visible noise interfered parts of the
recorded EEG data. EEG data were segmented from -1.5s to
0.2s with respect to the movement onset.
III. RESULTS
In comparison to the resting state EEG waveforms, there
were visible upsurges in the brain activity in the region of
1400ms to 600ms prior to the actual physical movement
under both triggered and self-generated intention to move
conditions. EEG waveforms show a slow negativity in this
region and tends to move back to the positive potentials
along with the movement onset. Those activities could be
recognized as patterns of RP. Potential fluctuations in the
region of -1400ms to -600ms region can be identified as the
early RP. Returning to positive potentials in the region of -
600ms to movement onset can be identified as the late
component of RP.
 Fig. 2. (a)Gradients of Readiness Potential waveforms preceding right hand movement (b)Gradients of Readiness Potential waveforms preceding left
hand movement
Grand averaged RP waveforms of all subjects and all
channels are plotted in Fig. 3. Plots show epochs of -1.5s to
0.2s from the onset of actual physical movement. Fig. 3(a)
shows the grand averaged RP waveforms recorded while
making left hand fists and Fig. 3(b) shows the RP waveforms
preceding right hand movements. Compared to the EEG
waveforms of the resting state there was a preceding negative
descend under both self-generated and externally triggered
intentions.
Fig. 4 shows the latencies from 1300ms to 700ms prior to
the onset of the movement. In addition to that the gradients
of the RP waveforms are also listed beneath. (Fig. 4(a) –
right hand fist, Fig. 4(b) – left hand fist). Fig. 4 proves that
when the intention to move is generated externally, RP
waveform has a greater negative descend compared to the
case where the movement intention is voluntarily generated.
Fig. 4(a) and Fig. 4(b) further proves that the above result is
consistent in both right- and left-hand movements.
Fig. 5 illustrates the averaged EEG waveforms of each
channel where Fig. 5(a) shows the RP waveforms preceding
the right-hand movement and Fig. 5(b) shows the RP
waveforms preceding the left hand movement. It is visible
that at each channel, RP waveforms preceding externally
triggered intention to move has a greater negative descend.
This significant difference is visible irrespective of the
laterality of the moving hand.
IV. DISCUSSION
The motive of the current study was to investigate the
influence the source of movement-intention holds on
readiness potential patterns. An experiment was designed
where EEG was recorded while the subject was making fists
under different conditions. Subject was supposed to make
left- and right-hand fists under externally triggered intention
and under self-generated intention. EEG data was gathered
focusing on the motor cortex and SMA regions of the brain.
Recorded EEG data were pre-processed and averaged over
number of trials to identify the patterns. First, we confirmed
the presence of RP under both self-generated and externally
triggered movement intentions. Second, we showed that
source of movement intention has an influence on RP. i.e.
self-generated movement-intention and externally generated
movement-intention. Third, we showed that this influence
was not affected by the laterality of the movement.
The presence of RP was confirmed by comparing with
the control experiment EEG data which is the resting state. A
slow negativity could be seen in the EEG data between -
1500ms to -700ms from the movement onset which was
clearly not visible in resting state EEG data. This was
identified as the early component of RP. This neural activity
was visible under both right hand and left-hand movements.
This negativity is then followed by a movement towards
positive potentials which starts around the onset of the
movement. This could be identified as the late component of
RP explained by L. Deecke, H. Weinberg and P. Brickett in
1982 [10].
Then the RP waveforms recoded under self-generated
and externally triggered intentions were compared. The
behaviour of the RP waveform was assessed based on the
negative gradient between -1400ms and -700ms from the
movement onset. It was clearly visible that the negative
gradient of the RP was greater when the intention to move
was generated via an external trigger. In other words, there
was a greater neural activity in the motor cortex when the
intention to move was generated via an external stimulus.
Fig. 3. (a) Channel based EEG waveforms preceding right hand movement (b) Channel based EEG waveforms preceding left hand movement
 According to H. Lau, R. D. Rogers, P. Haggard and R. E.
Passingham, the neural activity in this region increases when
the person thinks more about preparing for the movement
than about the movement itself [9], [11]. Based on that we
could conclude that providing an external stimulus to
generate the intention to move makes the person focus more
on preparing for the execution of the movement resulting in a
higher neural activity.
Finally, the experiment results proved that the above
influence of the source of intention on RP is consistent in
both left- and right-hand movements. That allowed us to
confirm that irrespective of the laterality of the physical
movement, the source of intention holds a significant
influence on the RP.
V. CONCLUSION
Readiness potential (RP) is an event related potential
(ERP) discovered more than half a century ago and many
researches are done and are ongoing to explore various
aspects of this. Especially with the enthusiasm to anticipate
future events, RP holds a promising future. Despite that
there are many areas that needs more investigations when it
comes to RP. In this study we investigated the influence the
source of intention holds on RP. Results of this study
confirmed that the source of intention has a significant
influence on RP irrespective of the laterality of the
movement. Nevertheless, the patterns of RP were clearly
visible in both conditions. This could be useful in predicting
human movements and also in distinguishing the source of
intention to a particular movement. Therefore, future
research should be conducted to use this finding to anticipate
human movements based on RP.
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