Nature Communications (Feb 2020)

Breathing is coupled with voluntary action and the cortical readiness potential

  • Hyeong-Dong Park,
  • Coline Barnoud,
  • Henri Trang,
  • Oliver A. Kannape,
  • Karl Schaller,
  • Olaf Blanke

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13967-9
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 1 – 8

Abstract

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Voluntary action and free will have been associated with cortical activity, referred to as “the readiness potential” that precedes self-initiated actions by about 1 s. Here, the authors show that the involuntary and cyclic motor act of breathing is coupled with voluntary action and the readiness potential.