Real-time intracortical decoding from human motor cortex reveals a task-independent commitment to act that aligns with conscious intent
- 1University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX, USA
Abstract
Preparatory neural signals that precede movement onset are well established. However, whether they mark a commitment to act, align with conscious intention, or are subject to voluntary control remains under debate. We addressed these questions with a closed-loop experiment: a strategic timing game where a virtual opponent monitored intracortical sensorimotor activity and preempted participants' actions when their intention to move was detected. In three people with tetraplegia and preserved wrist extension, movement onset was reliably predicted from motor cortex 250-400 ms before action. Although participants attempted to act unpredictably, they were preempted on 94% of trials -and movement output generally followed despite the opponent's interruption. Participants reported intending to act on 88% of preemptions. The same decoder accurately predicted participants' actions in a non-competitive task, without retraining. These findings identify a late, task-independent motor-cortical state marking a voluntary commitment to act, which participants report as an intention when interrupted.
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BibTeX
@misc{verbaarschot2026realtime,
title = {{Real-time intracortical decoding from human motor cortex reveals a task-independent commitment to act that aligns with conscious intent}},
author = {C. Verbaarschot and A. de Miguel Gomez and A. Alamri and J. Collinger and C. Greenspon and A. Schurger and R. Gaunt and U. Maoz},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.64898/2026.10.15.759437},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.15.759437v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Real-time intracortical decoding from human motor cortex reveals a task-independent commitment to act that aligns with conscious intent
AU - C. Verbaarschot
AU - A. de Miguel Gomez
AU - A. Alamri
AU - J. Collinger
AU - C. Greenspon
AU - A. Schurger
AU - R. Gaunt
AU - U. Maoz
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/15
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.10.15.759437
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.15.759437v1
AB - Preparatory neural signals that precede movement onset are well established. However, whether they mark a commitment to act, align with conscious intention, or are subject to voluntary control remains under debate. We addressed these questions with a closed-loop experiment: a strategic timing game where a virtual opponent monitored intracortical sensorimotor activity and preempted participants' actions when their intention to move was detected. In three people with tetraplegia and preserved wrist extension, movement onset was reliably predicted from motor cortex 250-400 ms before action. Although participants attempted to act unpredictably, they were preempted on 94% of trials -and movement output generally followed despite the opponent's interruption. Participants reported intending to act on 88% of preemptions. The same decoder accurately predicted participants' actions in a non-competitive task, without retraining. These findings identify a late, task-independent motor-cortical state marking a voluntary commitment to act, which participants report as an intention when interrupted.
ER -