Abstract
The question of how topographically ordered sensory information is transformed into motor commands is largely unsolved. Our theoretical approach to the positive phototaxis of an “idealized planaria” leads to the concept of map-weighting provided by an intermediate information processing structure between eyes and motor apparatus. Map-weighting and subsequent summation generate the components which, reciprocally facilitated and inhibited in the CNS, yield appropriate commands. It is suggested that map-weighting may be adjusted to produce or restore an optimal match with the external luminance distribution. The matching may be achieved by comparing the reafference of the animal’s movements with an efference copy of the motor commands. The concept of map-weighting, in principle, may be applied to other sensori-motor functions as well, such as the transformation of the locus of prey in the toad’s tectum into an appropriate motor output.
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Mittelstaedt, H., Eggert, T. (1989). How to Transform Topographically Ordered Spatial Information into Motor Commands. In: Ewert, JP., Arbib, M.A. (eds) Visuomotor Coordination. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0897-1_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0897-1_18
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