Computational Neuroanatomy of Voluntary Motor Control

Abstract

We review some of the impairments in motor control, motor learning, and higher-order motor control in patients with lesions of the cerebellum, parietal cortex, and basal ganglia. We attempt to explain some of these impairments in terms of computational ideas such as state estimation, optimization, prediction, cost, and reward. We suggest that a function of the cerebellum is system identification: to built internal models that predict sensory outcome of motor commands and correct motor commands through internal feedback. A function of the parietal cortex is state estimation: to integrate the predicted proprioceptive and visual outcomes with sensory feedback to form a belief about how the commands affected the states of the body and the environment. A function of basal ganglia is related to optimal control: learning costs and rewards associated with sensory states and estimating the “cost-to-go” during execution of a motor task.