Beyond The Point Of No Return: Last-Minute Changes In Human Motor Performance

Schultze-Kraft et al. (1) tested whether human volunteers can win a “duel” against a brain–computer interface (BCI) predicting movements based on real-time classification of early movement-related brain electric signals. The authors aimed to determine the exact time at which interruption or cancellation of movements is not possible anymore, and found this “point of no return” to be around 200 ms before the onset of muscle contractions measured by electromyography (EMG). However, even after onset of EMG activity, movements could be altered or cancelled. Having identified this point of no return, Schultze-Kraft et al. (1) argue against the idea that the onset of early movement-related brain signals, e.g., the …