3 - Spatial Location Cues and Movement Production

Abstract

This chapter reviews spatial location cues and movement production. The production of skilled movement results from the coordination of a number of central processes. Under the traditionally accepted interpretation, open-loop control requires the storage in memory of an infinite number of learned movements in the form of some representation of the motor commands. The chapter reviews evidence for the coding of movement information and discusses the possibility that movement may be coded in terms of spatial location. Also, evidence for the utilization of spatial location cues in determining production and control of movement is discussed. Open-loop control implies motor programming in that the motor pattern of innervation is structured prior to release and is not dependent on peripheral feedback. In movements longer than feedback processing time, there occurs the potential for using afferent information in the ongoing control of movement. For spatial location to be a viable alternative to the stored neural commands or their sensory consequences in the production and control of movement, two things must be shown. First, the spatial location is accessible in memory independently of any movements associated with its storage, and second, that movement to that location can be produced from starting positions other than that from which the spatial location was coded.