Abstract
The control of behaviour is usually understood in terms of three distinct components: sensory processing, decision making and movement control. Recently, this view has been questioned on the basis of physiological and behavioural data, blurring the distinction between these three stages. This raises the question to what extent the motor system itself can contribute to the interpretation of behavioural situations. To investigate this question we use a neural model of sensory motor integration applied to a behaving mobile robot performing a navigation task. We show that the population response of the motor system provides a substrate for the categorization of behavioural situations. This categorization allows for the assessment of the complexity of a behavioural situation and regulates whether higher-level decision making is required to resolve behavioural conflicts. Our model lends credence to an emerging reconceptualization of behavioural control where the motor system can be considered as part of a high-level perceptual system.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (358.9 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Carpenter A. F., Georgopoulos A. P., Pellizzer G. Motor cortical encoding of serial order in a context-recall task. Science. 1999 Mar 12;283(5408):1752–1757. doi: 10.1126/science.283.5408.1752. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Gardner Justin L., Lisberger Stephen G. Serial linkage of target selection for orienting and tracking eye movements. Nat Neurosci. 2002 Sep;5(9):892–899. doi: 10.1038/nn897. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Gold Joshua I. Good vibrations. Neuron. 2002 Mar 14;33(6):842–844. doi: 10.1016/s0896-6273(02)00629-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Kohler Evelyne, Keysers Christian, Umiltà M. Alessandra, Fogassi Leonardo, Gallese Vittorio, Rizzolatti Giacomo. Hearing sounds, understanding actions: action representation in mirror neurons. Science. 2002 Aug 2;297(5582):846–848. doi: 10.1126/science.1070311. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Leon M. I., Shadlen M. N. Exploring the neurophysiology of decisions. Neuron. 1998 Oct;21(4):669–672. doi: 10.1016/s0896-6273(00)80584-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Naito Eiichi, Roland Per E., Ehrsson H. Henrik. I feel my hand moving: a new role of the primary motor cortex in somatic perception of limb movement. Neuron. 2002 Dec 5;36(5):979–988. doi: 10.1016/s0896-6273(02)00980-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Rizzolatti G., Luppino G. The cortical motor system. Neuron. 2001 Sep 27;31(6):889–901. doi: 10.1016/s0896-6273(01)00423-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Salinas E., Romo R. Conversion of sensory signals into motor commands in primary motor cortex. J Neurosci. 1998 Jan 1;18(1):499–511. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.18-01-00499.1998. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Shadlen M. N., Britten K. H., Newsome W. T., Movshon J. A. A computational analysis of the relationship between neuronal and behavioral responses to visual motion. J Neurosci. 1996 Feb 15;16(4):1486–1510. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.16-04-01486.1996. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
Associated Data
This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article.