ECRP09: collaboration led by Patrick Haggard: Intentional Inhibition of Human Action
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Patrick Haggard (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Ganos C
(2015)
Volitional action as perceptual detection: predictors of conscious intention in adolescents with tic disorders.
in Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior
Misirlisoy E
(2014)
Veto and vacillation: a neural precursor of the decision to withhold action.
in Journal of cognitive neuroscience
Misirlisoy E
(2014)
Asymmetric predictability and cognitive competition in football penalty shootouts.
in Current biology : CB
Misirlisoy E
(2015)
The relation between attention and tic generation in Tourette syndrome.
in Neuropsychology
Misirlisoy E
(2015)
Reply to Braun and Schmidt.
in Current biology : CB
Moore JW
(2010)
Disrupting the experience of control in the human brain: pre-supplementary motor area contributes to the sense of agency.
in Proceedings. Biological sciences
Walsh E
(2015)
Voluntary control of a phantom limb.
in Neuropsychologia
Walsh E
(2010)
Somatosensory effects of action inhibition: a study with the stop-signal paradigm
in Experimental Brain Research
| Description | The capacity for self-control is key to social function and psychological wellbeing. However, researchers lack adequate methods to elicit and to measure self-control. This grant aimed to develop and use these methods, thus laying the foundations for a true science of self-control. In a paper published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, we showed that decisions to inhibit action are influenced by spontaneous activity in the brain. We used electroencephalography (EEG) to measure levels of motor-related neural activity, while people made repeated rhythmic actions with their right index finger. At times of their choosing, participants were free to omit a single action. Analysis of the amplitude of EEG signals showed that when motor activity was spontaneously low, people were more likely to choose to omit actions. This is important as it explains that our voluntary decisions can be driven by internal bodily factors outside of our awareness. When engaged in continuous actions, fluctuations in motor-related brain states can determine whether or not we continue acting. Following on from this research, we used a similar task while scanning the brain with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants engaged in rhythmic actions, which they synchronised with a visual stream of individual letters presented to them on a computer screen. They omitted an action at either a time of their choice, or when instructed by the experimenter. Comparisons of brain activation between these two types of inhibition revealed distinct neural correlates associated with voluntary intentional inhibition and externally instructed inhibition. Intentional inhibition was associated with greater activity in the medial pre-SMA area of the brain, while instructed inhibition activated more anterior medial frontal areas. Another project used unconscious priming methods to show that external visual stimuli outside our awareness can affect choices to inhibit action. Participants responded to visual targets on a computer screen, some of which were 'free choice' stimuli that allowed the participant to choose between pressing and not pressing a key. Prior to the presentation of these targets, subliminal images associated with actions or inhibitions were also presented. Inhibitory subliminal primes significantly biased participants to subsequently choose inhibition over action. It was previously thought that choices to inhibit action were immune to effects of unconscious stimuli, but the discoveries from this research suggest that decisions to inhibit as well as act can be influenced by subliminal information. An important discovery was also made through a research project examining the role of attention in tic disorders. Patients with Tourette syndrome were given a task that directed their attentional focus towards their tics, towards external objects, or towards their voluntary movements. When focusing on tics, patients produced significantly more tics than when focusing on external events or voluntary movements. They produced the lowest number of tics when directing their attention at their voluntary movements. By showing that simple manipulations of attention can significantly reduce tics, this project has direct treatment implications. |
| Exploitation Route | The findings from the project with Tourette syndrome patients could be put to use in healthcare. Our data showed that when patients shift their attention between different objects, the frequency of tic generation changes. Attentional distraction strategies could therefore provide a simple, safe, and useful approach to relieving tic symptoms. We also highlighted findings showing significant effects of unconscious information on decisions to inhibit. These could be important in the areas of law or justice. We show that self-control is vulnerable to effects that we cannot perceive, and it is therefore important to fully understand the possible factors that feed in to everyday decisions. By minimising environmental factors that reduce inhibition capacity, and maximising factors that enhance inhibition, it may be possible to improve crime prevention in areas characterised by failures of self-control. Similarly, there may be benefits to reducing excessive impulsivity in business-related decision-making. Our findings offer a stronger understanding of inhibition in voluntary choices, and this could be linked to managing impulsivity. Latest publication data suggests that this work has indeed been taken up by others: e.g., a research group at University of Sussex has demonstrated important links between capacity for intentional inhibition and interoceptive ability - this may lead to further understanding of individual differences. |
| Sectors | Education,Financial Services, and Management Consultancy,Healthcare,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| URL | http://www.icn.ucl.ac.uk |
| Description | This research has been concerned with how people withhold actions, and on the brain mechanisms underlying this capacity for action 'veto'. A major impact has come from the international links generated through the ESF collaboration under which the grant was run. For example, one of the researchers on the grant, Dr C Ganos, was recently awarded a 5-year programme grant by Volkswagen Foundation to study the mechanisms of voluntary inhibition of involuntary movement in Gilles de la Tourette' syndrome. This work will have valuable impact on quality of life form the many young people with hyperkinetic movement disorders such as tics. Other members of the original collaboration have had impact through research investigating intentional inhibition as a possible mechanism underlying stuttering (collaboration with Dr E Crone). Policy impact has come from a series of interactions between neuroscientists and lawyers. The concept of withholding action, which formed the heart of the research grant, has key importance for law. Law assumes that criminal responsibility for action is linked to the 'voluntary act condition'. The voluntariness aspect assumes, that for any given criminal act, the agent could always have not acted. These ideas were debated with an interdisciplinary group of psychologists, neuroscientists and lawyers (both practicing and academic) at two specially organised meetings, at Senate House London in autumn 2015, and at the British Academy in spring 2016. The latter meeting was tasked with generating a research agenda for future work in psychology and neuroscience specifically targeted at providing an evidence base for legal policy. The 'loss of control' defence for homicide was selected as being an important area where evidence regarding action inhibition capacity in the human brain will be relevant to legal decision-making. A further area of emerging impact is responsibility in artificial intelligence and robotics. In the first-ever text on robot ethics, by Prof T Metzinger, the concept of 'veto control' figures prominently. Prof Metzinger acknowledges that this concept emerged directly from our work on the human capacity to withhold actions at the last moment. A collaboration with ONERA, France, is pursuing the idea of human intervention as a "takeover control" in automated systems. Finally, the PI is organising (and joining) a panel debate on "robots and responsibility" in the context of the 2017 British Academy debates, which will feature an interdisciplinary, high-profile discussion around human-machine responsibility issues. Finally, public engagement impact has come from media coverage of our paper 'Asymmetric predictability and cognitive competition in football penalty shootouts', by numerous news outlets, including BBC and The Independent. Further, the PI was invited to present at a commercially-sponsored symposium on action and athletic expertise at the International Congress of Psychological Sciences, Yokohama, 2016, to a mixed audience of sports science practitioners and academic psychologists. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2015 |
| Sector | Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Description | Chaire Blaise Pascal |
| Amount | € 178,000 (EUR) |
| Organisation | École Normale Supérieure, Paris |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | France |
| Start | 01/2018 |
| End | 12/2019 |
| Description | National radio interview (BBC Radio 4 "The ideas that make us" with Bettany Hughes) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Radio interview on the importance of volition in human society for BBC Radio 4 programme "The ideas that make us", presented by Bettany Hughes. Ranked within iTunes Top 40 podcasts. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016,2017,2018 |
| URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0447tqq |