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Warning Signals Induce Automatic EMG Activations and Proactive Volitional Inhibition: Evidence From Analysis of Error Distribution in Simple RT

¹Université de Poitiers, Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l'Apprentissage, Équipe Attention et Contrôle, Unité Mixte de Recherche du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (UMR CNRS) 6234; ²Université de Poitiers, Laboratoire Performance Motricité et Cognition, Equipe d'Accueil 3814; and ³Université de Poitiers, Laboratoire Langage Mémoire et Développement Cognitif, UMR CNRS 6215, France

Submitted 26 October 2007; accepted in final form 23 December 2007

Typical simple reaction-time (RT) paradigms usually include a warning signal followed by a variable foreperiod before the presentation of a reaction stimulus. Most current interpretations suggest that the warning stimulus alerts the organism and so results in faster processing of either the sensory or motor components of the task. In this study, electromyography (EMG) was used to detect both covert and overt motor errors in a simple warned RT task. Results show that warning signals may trigger automatic motor activations that are likely to cause false alarms. Distribution analysis reveals that 77% of all errors detected with EMG are erroneous responses to the warning signal. Accordingly, we propose that movement triggering needs to be temporarily inhibited before the stimulus to prevent premature responses during the foreperiod. This proactive inhibition would be responsible for a paradoxical increase in RT for conditions with short foreperiods compared with control conditions in which no warning signal is presented. These results call for a reassessment of the theoretical framework used to interpret the effects of warning signals.

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