Our study provides novel insights into the planning and execution of coordinated eye-hand movements by showing that oculomotor responses reflect predictive processes related to motor planning under e...

The modulation of oscillations at alpha and beta frequency ranges recorded over sensory cortices has been linked to the top-down weighting of sensory information relative to (competing) information from other modalities. Here, using a virtual reality-based hand-target matching task under visuo-proprioceptive conflict, we tested whether alpha-/beta-tACS over the occipital cortex would improve action performance when conflicting visual movement feedback needed to be ignored in favor of proprioception. Participants had to match a target rhythm with either their unseen real hand (RH) grasping movements, or with the movements of a virtual hand (VH) that displayed their actual movements after a constant time delay. Visual movement feedback was, consequently, either task-relevant (VH task) or a distractor (RH task). In a cross-over, double-blind, within-subject design, we applied either low-intensity (2 mA peak-to-peak) transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) at 10 Hz (“alpha”) or 20 Hz (“beta”), or sham, over the occipital cortex during this task. Neither alpha- nor beta-tACS significantly affected hand-target matching performance, but fixation variability in the RH condition significantly decreased during beta-tACS relative to sham stimulation. Thus, despite not directly modulating manual performance, occipital beta-tACS could have facilitated ignoring the mismatching (distracting) visual movement feedback when needed.

BRNet is pleased to inaugurate the 2026 seminar series with Prof. Patrick Haggard, whose work has been foundational in shaping the field of body representation. SELF-KNOWLEDGE AND SOMATOSENSORY PERCE...