Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33568461›Full record

ArticleeNeuro

Suppress Me if You Can: Neurofeedback of the Readiness Potential.

Matthias Schultze-Kraft, Vincent Jonany, Thomas Samuel Binns, Joram Soch, Benjamin Blankertz, John-Dylan Haynes

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in eNeuro. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed
0.8field-weighted citation impact, top 32% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Factors that influence the amplitude of the bereitschaftspotential.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2026
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.

Matthias Schultze-KraftBernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin 10117, Germany schultze-kraft@bccn-berlin.de haynes@bccn-berlin.de.ORCID 0000-0002-6599-7791
Vincent JonanyBernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin 10117, Germany.
Thomas Samuel BinnsBernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin 10117, Germany.ORCID 0000-0003-0657-0891
Joram SochBernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin 10117, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-8879-5666
Benjamin BlankertzNeurotechnology Group, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin 10587, Germany.
John-Dylan HaynesBernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin 10117, Germany schultze-kraft@bccn-berlin.de haynes@bccn-berlin.de.
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin · DEGerman Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases · DETechnische Universität Berlin · DEUniversity of Aberdeen · GB

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Voluntary movements are usually preceded by a slow, negative-going brain signal over motor areas, the so-called readiness potential (RP). To date, the exact nature and causal role of the RP in movement preparation have remained heavily debated. Although the RP is influenced by several motorical and cognitive factors, it has remained unclear whether people can learn to exert mental control over their RP, for example, by deliberately suppressing it. If people were able to initiate spontaneous movements without eliciting an RP, this would challenge the idea that the RP is a necessary stage of the causal chain leading up to a voluntary movement. We tested the ability of participants to control the magnitude of their RP in a neurofeedback experiment. Participants performed self-initiated movements, and after every movement, they were provided with immediate feedback about the magnitude of their RP. They were asked to find a strategy to perform voluntary movements such that the RPs were as small as possible. We found no evidence that participants were able to to willfully modulate or suppress their RPs while still eliciting voluntary movements. This suggests that the RP might be an involuntary component of voluntary action over which people cannot exert conscious control.

Indexed as

Motor CortexNeurofeedbackContingent Negative VariationElectroencephalographyMovementconscious controlEEGneurofeedbackreadiness potentialvoluntary movement

Identifiers

PMID33568461
PMCPMC7986527
OpenAlexW3128551346

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.