“Reaching decisions during ongoing movements”
In line with the COVID-19 states of affairs and with the WU guidelines, we are canceling our systems neuro jclub until April 30. If things look sensibly better, our next meeting is May 1, but stay tuned.
In lieu of the jclub, I propose the following: Each week, the lab who was responsible for jclub can circulate a paper they think is great and worth reading, as a suggestion. Then if enthusiasm runs high, we can exchange comments, thoughts through this mailing list on Friday (I don’t expect too much of that). This week is for the Snyder lab – send us something!
Best, Camillo
Email discussion:
- “Reaching decisions during ongoing movements”Journal of Neurophysiology 2020
- Please feel free to share your thoughts or feedback through the jclub mailing list:We often make decisions while moving (i.e. “decide-while-acting”). Drummers, for instance, decide when and where to move their arms during movement. In lab settings, however, researchers often use standard delay tasks (i.e. “decide-then-act”), and most action selection models are based on this “decide-then-act” paradigm.Michalski and colleagues asked human subjects to track moving targets, and the authors demonstrate interesting differences from the classical “decide-then-act” model. Biomechanical cost, which is computed by muscle torque to make switching movements to a different target, does not correspond to subjects’ probability of switching. They use this data to hypothesize neural circuits for controlling ongoing movements and those for action selection are different, and that biomechanical costs may be computed in the cerebellum.
The Systems Journal Club has spirited discussions of recent systems neuroscience papers, covering sensory, motor and cognitive issues. We meet at Noon on Fridays in the 3rd floor conference room of East McDonnell. If you have any questions, contact Larry Snyder (WashU Dept. of Neuroscience).