Chapter 10

Problem whereby there are potentially an infinite number of motor solutions for acting on an object

Stored routines that specify certain motor parameters of an action (e.g. the relative timing of strokes)

A cluster of perceptual processes that relate to the skin and body, and include touch, pain, thermal sensation, and limb position

Knowledge of the position of the limbs in space

Linking together perceptual knowledge of objects in space and knowledge of the position of one’s body to enable objects to be acted on

The problem of explaining volitional acts without assuming a cognitive process that is itself volitional (" a man within a man" )

Part of the brain responsible for execution of voluntary movements of the body

The sum of the preferred tunings of neurons multiplied by their firing rates

Damage to one side of the primary motor cortex results in a failure to voluntarily move the other side of the body

The lateral area is important for linking action with visual objects in the environment; the medial area is known as the supplementary motor area and deals with self-generated actions

Region of premotor cortex that deals with well-learned actions, particularly action sequences that do not place strong demands on monitoring the environment

Repeating an action that has already been performed and is no longer relevant

Impulsively acting on irrelevant objects in the environment

An organized set of stored information (e.g. of familiar action routines)

The mechanism that selects one particular schema to be enacted from a host of competing schemas

A representation of the motor command (a so-called efference copy) is used to predict the sensory consequences of an action

The ability to reproduce the behavior of another through observation

A neuron that responds to goal-directed actions performed by oneself or by others

An inability to use vision to accurately guide action, without basic deficits in visual discrimination or voluntary movement per se

A part of occipito-parietal cortex that responds, in particular, to reaching movements

A part of intra-parietal sulcus that responds, in particular, to manipulable shapes or 3D objects (from vision or touch)

A part of intra-parietal sulcus that responds to objects close to the body and in body-centered (as opposed to gaze-centered) coordinates

The feeling that an amputated limb is still present

An object that affords certain actions for specific goals

An inability to produce appropriate gestures given an object, word, or command (arising from brain damage)

Structural properties of objects imply certain usages

A disease associated with the basal ganglia and characterized by a lack of self-initiated movement

A reduction in movement

An increase in movement

A genetic disorder affecting the basal ganglia and associated with excessive movement