The Neurophysiology of Continuous Action Monitoring

Monitoring actions is essential for goal-directed behaviour. However, little is known about which neural processes underlie these functions when monitoring must be exerted continuously and is not short-lasting and regularly reinstates, as primarily examined in cognitive neuroscience. We show that superior parietal and frontal cortices are relevant during continuous action monitoring. Beta band activity plays a role through its importance in the maintenance of the sensorimotor program. Theta and alpha bands likely support these processes through their roles in attentional sampling and gating of information, respectively. Processes reflected by alpha and beta band activity are most relevant during the initial tracking period, in which sensorimotor calibrations are also most intense. Theta band activity is relevant throughout tracking but shifts from parietal cortices to frontal cortices, likely reflecting a shift in the functional relevance from attentional sampling to action monitoring. When sensorimotor processes must be adapted, resource allocation mechanisms in prefrontal areas and stimulus-response mapping processes in the parietal cortex reflect essential processing elements. The study closes a critical gap in knowledge on the neural processes in action monitoring and opens new directions of how neural processes underlying sensorimotor integration can be examined in more naturalistic experiments.