Brain Rhythms and Action

Everyday behaviour depends on the brain’s ability to connect what we perceive with what we do. When we see an object, hear a sound, or feel a touch, the brain combines these sensory features with our actions and their consequences. These temporary connections help us respond efficiently when we encounter a similar situation again.

Our research investigates the brain mechanisms underlying these processes within the Binding and Retrieval in Action Control framework, or BRAC. BRAC distinguishes between two important stages: binding, when the brain links features of a current experience into a coherent episode, and retrieval, when part of a later situation reactivates that previous episode and influences behaviour.

We use electroencephalography (EEG) to measure the brain’s electrical activity while participants perform carefully designed perception-and-action tasks. In particular, we study brain oscillations—rhythmic patterns of neural activity that coordinate communication between different brain regions. Changes in oscillations such as theta, alpha, and beta activity may reveal when the brain creates perception–action links, when it retrieves them, and how it resolves conflicts between past experiences and current goals.

By combining behavioural measures such as reaction times and errors with EEG, we aim to identify the neuropsychological processes that allow previous experiences to guide present actions. This approach also helps us understand how these mechanisms may differ across individuals, across the lifespan, and in neurological or neuropsychiatric conditions.

Ultimately, our work seeks to explain how coordinated brain rhythms transform individual sensations and movements into stable, flexible, and goal-directed behaviour.

Duration: 2022 - 2026
Funding: German Research Foundation (DFG) FR2133/15-1, 15-2
Contact:  Christian Frings 
in collaboration with PD Dr. Bernhard Pastötter (Univ. Nürnberg), Prof. Dr. Beste (Univ. Dresden)

Selected publications:

Pastötter, B., Beste, C., Münchau, A., & Frings, C. (2025). Perception-action integration is linked to posterior alpha/beta desynchronization. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 37, 1913-1928. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.a.52

Pastötter, B., & Frings, C. (2023). Prestimulus alpha power signals attention to retrieval. European Journal of Neuroscience, 58, 4328-4340. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.16181