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Brain Structure & Function Dec 2019Evidence is provided for a new conceptualization of the connectivity and functions of the cingulate cortex in emotion, action, and memory. The anterior cingulate cortex... (Review)
Review
Evidence is provided for a new conceptualization of the connectivity and functions of the cingulate cortex in emotion, action, and memory. The anterior cingulate cortex receives information from the orbitofrontal cortex about reward and non-reward outcomes. The posterior cingulate cortex receives spatial and action-related information from parietal cortical areas. It is argued that these inputs allow the cingulate cortex to perform action-outcome learning, with outputs from the midcingulate motor area to premotor areas. In addition, because the anterior cingulate cortex connects rewards to actions, it is involved in emotion; and because the posterior cingulate cortex has outputs to the hippocampal system, it is involved in memory. These apparently multiple different functions of the cingulate cortex are related to the place of this proisocortical limbic region in brain connectivity.
Topics: Animals; Emotions; Gyrus Cinguli; Humans; Limbic System; Memory; Motor Activity; Neural Pathways; Reward
PubMed: 31451898
DOI: 10.1007/s00429-019-01945-2 -
Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on... 2014Our cognitive abilities can only be expressed on the world through our actions. Here we review the computations underlying the way that the sensorimotor system converts... (Review)
Review
Our cognitive abilities can only be expressed on the world through our actions. Here we review the computations underlying the way that the sensorimotor system converts both low-level sensory signals and high-level decisions into action, focusing on the behavioral evidence for the theoretical frameworks. We review recent work that determines how motor memories underlying sensorimotor learning are activated and protected from interference, the role of Bayesian decision theory in sensorimotor control including sources of suboptimality, the role of risk sensitivity in guiding action, and how rapid motor responses may underlie the robustness of the motor system to the vagaries of the world.
Topics: Decision Making; Humans; Learning; Motor Activity; Sensation; User-Computer Interface
PubMed: 25851507
DOI: 10.1101/sqb.2014.79.024919 -
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience May 2012In analyses of the motor system, two hierarchies are often posited: The first-the action hierarchy-is a decomposition of an action into subactions and sub-subactions.... (Review)
Review
In analyses of the motor system, two hierarchies are often posited: The first-the action hierarchy-is a decomposition of an action into subactions and sub-subactions. The second-the control hierarchy-is a postulated hierarchy in the neural control processes that are supposed to bring about the action. A general assumption in cognitive neuroscience is that these two hierarchies are internally consistent and provide complementary descriptions of neuronal control processes. In this article, we suggest that neither offers a complete explanation and that they cannot be reconciled in a logical or conceptually coherent way. Furthermore, neither pays proper attention to the dynamics and temporal aspects of neural control processes. We will explore an alternative hierarchical organization in which causality is inherent in the dynamics over time. Specifically, high levels of the hierarchy encode more stable (goal-related) representations, whereas lower levels represent more transient (actions and motor acts) kinematics. If employed properly, a hierarchy based on this latter principle of temporal extension is not subject to the problems that plague the traditional accounts.
Topics: Brain; Humans; Models, Neurological; Motor Activity; Neural Pathways; Neurons
PubMed: 22288396
DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_00204 -
Journal of Neurophysiology Mar 2017It has been long known that neural activity, recorded with electrophysiological methods, contains rich information about a subject's motor intentions, sensory... (Review)
Review
It has been long known that neural activity, recorded with electrophysiological methods, contains rich information about a subject's motor intentions, sensory experiences, allocation of attention, action planning, and even abstract thoughts. All these functions have been the subject of neurophysiological investigations, with the goal of understanding how neuronal activity represents behavioral parameters, sensory inputs, and cognitive functions. The field of brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) strives for a somewhat different goal: it endeavors to extract information from neural modulations to create a communication link between the brain and external devices. Although many remarkable successes have been already achieved in the BMI field, questions remain regarding the possibility of decoding high-order neural representations, such as decision making. Could BMIs be employed to decode the neural representations of decisions underlying goal-directed actions? In this review we lay out a framework that describes the computations underlying goal-directed actions as a multistep process performed by multiple cortical and subcortical areas. We then discuss how BMIs could connect to different decision-making steps and decode the neural processing ongoing before movements are initiated. Such decision-making BMIs could operate as a system with prediction that offers many advantages, such as shorter reaction time, better error processing, and improved unsupervised learning. To present the current state of the art, we review several recent BMIs incorporating decision-making components.
Topics: Animals; Brain; Brain-Computer Interfaces; Decision Making; Feedback, Sensory; Humans; Motor Activity
PubMed: 28003406
DOI: 10.1152/jn.00051.2016 -
International Journal of... Feb 2012Agency is an important aspect of bodily self-consciousness, allowing us to separate own movements from those induced by the environment and to distinguish own movements... (Review)
Review
Agency is an important aspect of bodily self-consciousness, allowing us to separate own movements from those induced by the environment and to distinguish own movements from those of other agents. Unsurprisingly, theoretical frameworks for agency such as central monitoring are closely tied to computational models of sensorimotor control. Until recently agency research has largely focussed on goal-directed movements of the upper limbs. In particular, the influence of performance-related sensory cues and the relevance of prediction signals for agency judgements have been studied through a variety of spatio-temporal mismatches between movement and the sensory consequences of movement. However, agents often perform a different type of movement; highly automated movements that involve the entire body such as walking, cycling, and swimming with potentially different agency mechanisms. Here, we review recent work about agency for full-body movements such as gait, highlighting the effects of performance-related visual and auditory cues on gait agency. Gait movements differ from upper limb actions. Gait is cyclic, more rarely immediately goal-directed, and is generally considered one of the most automatic and unconscious actions. We discuss such movement differences with respect to the functional mechanisms of full-body agency and body-part agency by linking these gait agency paradigms to computational models of motor control. This is followed by a selective review of gait control, locomotion, and models of motor control relying on prediction signals and underlining their relevance for full-body agency.
Topics: Acoustic Stimulation; Animals; Awareness; Consciousness; Gait; Humans; Motor Activity; Photic Stimulation; Psychomotor Performance; Walking
PubMed: 22226801
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2011.12.006 -
Trends in Neurosciences Apr 2017Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) studies in humans have shown that many behaviors engage processes that suppress excitability within the corticospinal tract.... (Review)
Review
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) studies in humans have shown that many behaviors engage processes that suppress excitability within the corticospinal tract. Inhibition of the motor output pathway has been extensively studied in the context of action stopping, where a planned movement needs to be abruptly aborted. Recent TMS work has also revealed markers of motor inhibition during the preparation of movement. Here, we review the evidence for motor inhibition during action stopping and action preparation, focusing on studies that have used TMS to monitor changes in the excitability of the corticospinal pathway. We discuss how these physiological results have motivated theoretical models of how the brain selects actions, regulates movement initiation and execution, and switches from one state to another.
Topics: Humans; Inhibition, Psychological; Motor Activity; Pyramidal Tracts; Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
PubMed: 28341235
DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2017.02.006 -
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal... Oct 2013Actions taking place in the environment are critical for our survival. We review evidence on attention to action, drawing on sets of converging evidence from... (Review)
Review
Actions taking place in the environment are critical for our survival. We review evidence on attention to action, drawing on sets of converging evidence from neuropsychological patients through to studies of the time course and neural locus of action-based cueing of attention in normal observers. We show that the presence of action relations between stimuli helps reduce visual extinction in patients with limited attention to the contralesional side of space, while the first saccades made by normal observers and early perceptual and attentional responses measured using electroencephalography/event-related potentials are modulated by preparation of action and by seeing objects being grasped correctly or incorrectly for action. With both normal observers and patients, there is evidence for two components to these effects based on both visual perceptual and motor-based responses. While the perceptual responses reflect factors such as the visual familiarity of the action-related information, the motor response component is determined by factors such as the alignment of the objects with the observer's effectors and not by the visual familiarity of the stimuli. In addition to this, we suggest that action relations between stimuli can be coded pre-attentively, in the absence of attention to the stimulus, and action relations cue perceptual and motor responses rapidly and automatically. At present, formal theories of visual attention are not set up to account for these action-related effects; we suggest ways that theories could be expected to enable action effects to be incorporated.
Topics: Attention; Cues; Humans; Models, Psychological; Motor Activity; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Photic Stimulation; Psychomotor Performance; Saccades; Visual Perception
PubMed: 24018721
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2013.0059 -
NeuroImage Mar 2020Action Execution (AE) and Action Observation (AO) share an extended cortical network of activated areas. During coordinative action these processes also overlap in time,...
Action Execution (AE) and Action Observation (AO) share an extended cortical network of activated areas. During coordinative action these processes also overlap in time, potentially giving rise to behavioral interference effects. The neurophysiological mechanisms subtending the interaction between concurrent AE and AO are substantially unknown. To assess the effect of AO on observer's corticomotor drive, we run one electromyography (EMG) and three Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) studies. Participants were requested to maintain a steady hand opening or closing posture while observing the same or a different action (hand opening and closing in the main TMS study). By measuring Cortical Silent Periods (CSP), an index of GABA-mediated corticospinal inhibitory strength, we show a selective reduction of inhibitory motor drive for mismatching AE-AO pairs. The last two TMS experiments, show that this mismatch is computed according to a muscle-level agonist-antagonist representation. Combined, our results suggest that corticospinal inhibition may be the central neurophysiological mechanism by which one's own motor execution is adapted to the contextual visual cues provided by other's actions.
Topics: Adult; Electromyography; Female; Hand; Humans; Inhibition, Psychological; Male; Motor Activity; Motor Cortex; Muscle, Skeletal; Neural Inhibition; Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation; Visual Perception; Young Adult
PubMed: 31821866
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116445 -
Journal of Neurophysiology Jul 2020Humans excel at learning complex tasks, and elite performers such as musicians or athletes develop motor skills that defy biomechanical constraints. All actions require... (Review)
Review
Humans excel at learning complex tasks, and elite performers such as musicians or athletes develop motor skills that defy biomechanical constraints. All actions require the movement of massive bodies. Of particular interest in the process of sensorimotor learning and control is the impact of gravitational forces on the body. Indeed, efficient control and accurate internal representations of the body configuration in space depend on our ability to feel and anticipate the action of gravity. Here we review studies on perception and sensorimotor control in both normal and altered gravity. Behavioral and modeling studies together suggested that the nervous system develops efficient strategies to take advantage of gravitational forces across a wide variety of tasks. However, when the body was exposed to altered gravity, the rate and amount of adaptation exhibited substantial variation from one experiment to another and sometimes led to partial adjustment only. Overall, these results support the hypothesis that the brain uses a multimodal and flexible representation of the effect of gravity on our body and movements. Future work is necessary to better characterize the nature of this internal representation and the extent to which it can adapt to novel contexts.
Topics: Adaptation, Physiological; Gravitation; Gravity Sensing; Humans; Motion Perception; Motor Activity; Proprioception; Space Perception
PubMed: 32348686
DOI: 10.1152/jn.00381.2019 -
Journal of Experimental Psychology.... Oct 2020Instrumental behaviors that are goal-directed actions after moderate amounts of training can become habits after more extended training. Little research has asked how...
Instrumental behaviors that are goal-directed actions after moderate amounts of training can become habits after more extended training. Little research has asked how actions and habits are affected by retroactive interference treatments like extinction. The present experiments begin to fill this gap in the literature. In Experiments 1a and 1b, lever pressing in rats was minimally trained (1a) or extensively trained (1b) in one context (Context A), extinguished in a second context (Context B), and then tested in the acquisition context (Context A). Exposure to both contexts was equated and controlled throughout, and the status of the behavior as action or habit was determined by reinforcer devaluation methods (taste aversion conditioning). Results confirmed that action (1a) and habit (1b) renewed with action or habit status, respectively, when they were returned to Context A. Experiments 2a and 2b then similarly tested action and habit after extinction in an ABC renewal paradigm. Here, lever pressing that was trained in Context A and extinguished in Context B renewed as action in Context C regardless of whether it had been an action or habit before extinction. The apparent conversion of habit to action during renewal testing in Context C was consistent with other results suggesting that habits converted to action when the context was changed at the start of extinction. Together, the results suggest that extinction in a second context inhibits instrumental behaviors trained as either actions or habits in a context-specific manner. They also expand on prior findings suggesting that actions transfer across contexts, and that habits do not. A change of context may be sufficient to convert a habit to goal-directed action. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Animals; Behavior, Animal; Conditioning, Operant; Extinction, Psychological; Female; Goals; Habits; Motor Activity; Psychomotor Performance; Rats, Wistar
PubMed: 32378909
DOI: 10.1037/xan0000247