Agency assignment in visuomotor control: a dedicated mechanism to attribute visual feedback to motor commands

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Alexandra Reichenbach
• Subject Area: Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
• Term: from 2011 to 2013
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 208029032

For most species, the ability to produce fast and accurate movements is critical for survival. To execute precise goal-directed movements, the visuomotor system must react appropriately to unexpected changes. To do this, it must simultaneously monitor visual information about the target and about the moving limb(s). In natural environments, this task is complicated by the need to ignore irrelevant visual objects. Nonetheless, the visuomotor system promptly reacts to visual feedback, suggesting that it automatically tags information about the moving limb(s) in parafoveal vision. I propose that the link between visual feedback and motor commands is achieved by a dedicated mechanism: agency assignment, the process of attributing outcomes to their causes. The first part of the project investigates the degree to which agency assignment and visual attention rely on shared or separate processes. Both mechanisms extract relevant information from complex visual scenes but differ fundamentally in their functions. I will test whether agency assignment operates independently of the focus of visual attention. Many natural actions involve simultaneously moving limbs. Because visual information is often ambiguous, it is difficult to determine which limb caused which visual change. Thus, the visuomotor system must continuously estimate the source of agency. In the second part of the project, I will model this estimation process in a Bayesian framework. Behavioural experiments using bimanual reaching movements will test the model predictions that explain how visual and motor parameters modulate the estimation process. The third part of the project explores the neural correlates of agency assignment using magneto encephalography. I will test the hypothesis that agency assignment depends on the coherence of neural activity in visual and sensory-motor regions. Thus, this project establishes a novel conception of how the brain achieves efficient feedback control during natural movements.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: United Kingdom
• Host: Professor Dr. Jörn Diedrichsen