Abstract
The cognitive mechanisms underlying sequential action selection in routine or everyday activities may be understood in terms of competition within a hierarchically organised network of action schemas. We present a neurobiologically plausible elaboration of an existing schema-based cognitive model of action selection in which the basal ganglia implements an activation-based selection process that mediates between assumed cortical representations of rule-based schemas. More specifically, the model employs a network of basal ganglia units with computations performed by individual BG nuclei, embedded in a corticothalamic loop that disinhibits schemas according to the received feedback. We provide bridging assumptions for linking the operation of the model with ERP components that describe the error-related negativity (ERN) and the parietal switch positivity (PSP), and evaluate the model against behavioural and neural markers of performance of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test by healthy control participants and Parkinson's Disease patients.
Highlights
In an influential account of the control of thought and action, Nor man and Shallice (1986) drew a distinction between routine or over-learned behaviours and non-routine behaviours
As discussed earlier, reducing εstr is hypothesised to correspond to a reduction of dopamine concentration in the basal ganglia circuits, as seen in Parkinson’s Disease (PD) pathology
We have shown how an existing cognitive model of schema selection can be elaborated with a neurobiologically plausible model of the basal ganglia, with the combined model including parallel cortico-subcortical loops and the basal ganglia component serving to select between schemas by disinhibiting one of a set of competing loops
Summary
In an influential account of the control of thought and action, Nor man and Shallice (1986) drew a distinction between routine or over-learned behaviours and non-routine behaviours. Routine behav iour, they argued, reflects the enactment of learned schemas, via a system they called contention scheduling, while non-routine behaviour was held to reflect the operation of a deliberative system, the supervisory system, that operates on behaviour indirectly by selectively biasing the representations of schemas within contention scheduling. At a relatively low level, consider the steps involved in chang ing down a gear when driving a manual car and slowing for traffic lights or for a sharp corner. A critical part of learning to drive a manual car is automating these steps into a single routine — an action schema — that can be performed as a single unit, seemingly without conscious or deliberate control of each step
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