What Neurophysiology Teaches Us About Perception and Action

Abstract

We now shift from developmental psychology to neurophysiology to focus on the relationship between perception and action. In particular, we are interested in discovering what we can learn about the way a primate brain handles the perception of space, the perception of objects upon which the primate can act, structured interaction, and selective visual attention. In doing so, we will be concerned in particular with teasing out the dependency of perception on actions, both actual and potential. What we learn from this exercise results from a shift in our understanding of the way different parts of the brain interoperate. This shift represents a move away from a prevalent view of a complete separation of function among the dorsal and ventral streams in the brain, the former supposedly dealing exclusively with issues of location and space, the latter supposedly dealing exclusively with issues of identity and meaning. Instead, what emerges is a picture in which the dorsal stream plays a very active role in the recognition of actions and in object discrimination due to their affordances.We will also see that perceptions are directly facilitated by the current state of the premotor cortex.