Internal feedback in the cortical perception-action loop enables fast and accurate behavior
Jing Shuang Li, Anish A. Sarma, Terrence J. Sejnowski, John C. Doyle

TL;DR
Internal feedback mechanisms in the cortical perception-action loop enable animals to perform fast, accurate behaviors by compensating for delays and filtering predictable sensory changes, as shown through a control theory model.
Contribution
This paper introduces a control model demonstrating how internal feedback in neural systems compensates delays, enhances state estimation, and explains various neural and behavioral phenomena.
Findings
Internal feedback compensates for sensory-motor delays.
Fast neurons are crucial for rapid, accurate responses.
Model explains neural anatomy and behavior observations.
Abstract
Animals move smoothly and reliably in unpredictable environments. Models of sensorimotor control have assumed that sensory information from the environment leads to actions, which then act back on the environment, creating a single, unidirectional perception-action loop. This loop contains internal delays in sensory and motor pathways, which can lead to unstable control. We show here that these delays can be compensated by internal feedback signals that flow backwards, from motor towards sensory areas. Internal feedback is ubiquitous in neural sensorimotor systems and recent advances in control theory show how internal feedback compensates internal delays. This is accomplished by filtering out self-generated and other predictable changes in early sensory areas so that unpredicted, actionable information can be rapidly transmitted toward action by the fastest components. For example,…
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Taxonomy
TopicsNeural dynamics and brain function · Neural Networks and Applications · Visual perception and processing mechanisms
