title: Adaptive neural models of queuing and timing in fluent action.
abstract: In biological cognition, specialized representations and associated control processes solve the temporal problems inherent in skilled action. Recent data and neural circuit models highlight three distinct levels of temporal structure: sequence preparation, velocity scaling, and state-sensitive timing. Short sequences of actions are prepared collectively in prefrontal cortex, then queued for performance by a cyclic competitive process that operates on a parallel analog representation. Successful acts like ball-catching depend on coordinated scaling of effector velocities, and velocity scaling, mediated by the basal ganglia, may be coupled to perceived time-to-contact. Making acts accurate at high speeds requires state-sensitive and precisely timed activations of muscle forces in patterns that accelerate and decelerate the effectors. The cerebellum may provide a maximally efficient representational basis for learning to generate such timed activation patterns.
authors.affiliation: Cognitive & Neural Systems Department, Boston University, 677 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02215, USA. danb@cns.bu.edu
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bullock
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000502:physiology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D009482:Neurophysiology / Q000295:instrumentation; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors