Preparation and control of rapid voluntary movements

想象两个截然不同但真实的生活场景。在第一次巡逻中，一名警察开着巡逻车拦住了一辆可疑的被盗车辆。警察拔出枪，走到被盗车辆的驾驶员一侧。当他接近司机时，一辆在警察后面行驶的汽车“逆火”。警官向被盗的汽车开枪，打伤了嫌疑犯。警察是故意向嫌疑犯开枪的吗？在第二种情况下，奥运会田径100米决赛正在进行中，世界纪录保持者保持器在一次错误的开始后“在发令员的命令下”。发令枪打响，运动员从障碍物中“爆炸”出来，这被大多数人认为是一个好的开始。然而，他已经产生了在发令枪发射后96毫秒在“起跑器”上记录的力的增加。国际田径联合会指出，任何运动员在起跑信号发出后100毫秒之前增加对“块”的力量必须“跳枪”。因此该运动员被取消了参赛资格。运动员是否故意在起跑前就开始了？这两个场景是否相关？警察和运动员的行为是否可以解释？很明显，人们每天都需要对日常刺激做出快速反应，这些运动长期以来一直被认为是通过高级大脑中心（皮层回路）的信息流来控制的。然而，我们最近已经证明（沿着其他人），当准备好的反应准备就绪时，响亮的信号具有惊吓个体的效果，导致整个反应被释放，在某些情况下，受试者没有意识到反应已经发生。我们已经观察到的反应时间意外的惊人的刺激低至65毫秒。我们的假设是，一个准备好的反应是预先编程和存储在较低（皮层下）的大脑结构。当信号到达时，反应会被惊人的声音提前触发，绕过皮层处理，导致反应时间短。我建议的研究方案将调查负责这种快速准备行动的过程，并阐明其准备，储存和执行。

Picture two very different but real life scenarios. In the first a policeman in a patrol car pulls over a suspected stolen vehicle. The officer draws his gun and walks over to the driver side of the stolen vehicle. As he approaches the driver a car that is driving behind the policeman "backfires". The officer discharges his weapon into the stolen vehicle injuring the suspect. Did the officer intentionally fire his gun at the suspect? In the second scenario an Olympic track and field 100m final is underway and the world record holder is "under starter's orders" after having false started once before. The starter pistol is fired and the athlete "explodes" out of the blocks for what most believe to be a good start. However, he has produced an increase in force that is recorded on the "starting blocks" 96 ms after the starter pistol fired. The International Association of Athletics Federation state that any athlete increasing force on the "blocks" before 100 ms has passed after the starter signal must have "jumped the gun". Therefore the athlete was disqualified. Did the athlete intentionally anticipate the start without waiting for the sound of the starter pistol? Are these two scenarios related and can the actions of both the policeman and the athlete be explained? It is clear that fast responses to everyday stimuli are required of people on a daily basis and these movements have long been thought to be controlled via information flow through higher brain centres (cortical loops). However, we have recently shown (along with others) that when the prepared response is ready to go the loud signal has the effect of startling the individual causing the entire response to be released, in some instances without the subject being aware that the response has occurred. We have observed reaction times to unanticipated startling stimuli as low as 65 ms. Our hypothesis is that a prepared response is pre-programmed and stored in lower (subcortical) brain structures. When the signal arrives the response is triggered early by the startling sound, bypassing cortical processing and resulting in short reaction times. The programme of research that I propose will investigate the processes responsible for such fast prepared actions and shed light on their preparation, storage and execution.