Responses to startling acoustic stimuli indicate that movement-related activation does not build up in anticipation of action

Responses to startling acoustic stimuli indicate that movement-related activation does not build up in anticipation of action.

TO THE EDITOR: A recent article by Marinovic and colleagues (2013) used a loud acoustic stimulus (114 dB) to probe motor preparation prior to a visual imperative stimulus (IS) in a simple reaction time (RT) task. Results revealed decreasing RT latency and increasing motor output as the probe stimulus approached the IS, leading to the conclusion that response-related activation increased abruptl...

Responses to loud auditory stimuli indicate that movement-related activation builds up in anticipation of action.

Previous research using a loud acoustic stimulus (LAS) to investigate motor preparation in reaction time (RT) tasks indicates that responses can be triggered well in advance of the presentation of an imperative stimulus (IS). This is intriguing given that high levels of response preparation cannot be maintained for long periods (≈ 200 ms). In the experiments reported here we sought to assess wh...

Responses to startling acoustic stimuli indicate that movement-related activation is constant prior to action: a replication with an alternate interpretation

A recent study by Marinovic et al. (J. Neurophysiol., 2013, 109: 996-1008) used a loud acoustic stimulus to probe motor preparation in a simple reaction time (RT) task. Based on decreasing RT latency and increases in motor output measures as the probe stimulus approached the "go" stimulus, the authors concluded that response-related activation increased abruptly 65 ms prior to the imperative st...

The responses of horses to predator stimuli

It is not known whether the instincts of wild horses have remained strong during their centuries of domestication. Knowledge of this matter would give riders the opportunity to know more about the behavior of horses and consequently about safety for both horses and riders. In this current research, we studied the behavior of fifteen Caspian miniature horses of different ages and sexes using sti...

Movement responses of murderers to Rorschach stimuli.