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Science 20 February 2004:
Vol. 303. no. 5661, pp. 1208 - 1210
DOI: 10.1126/science.1090973
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Reports

Attention to Intention

Hakwan C. Lau,1,2* Robert D. Rogers,3 Patrick Haggard,4 Richard E. Passingham1

Intention is central to the concept of voluntary action. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we compared conditions in which participants made self-paced actions and attended either to their intention to move or to the actual movement. When they attended to their intention rather than their movement, there was an enhancement of activity in the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA). We also found activations in the right dorsal prefrontal cortexand left intraparietal cortex. Prefrontal activity, but not parietal activity, was more strongly coupled with activity in the pre-SMA. We conclude that activity in the pre-SMA reflects the representation of intention.

1 Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
2 Oxford Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
3 Department of Psychiatry and University of Oxford Centre for Clinical Magnetic Resonance Research, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
4 Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Department of Psychology, University College London, UK.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: chris.lau{at}psy.ox.ac.uk

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