Abstract
Sensorimotor control and learning are fundamental prerequisites for cognitive development in humans and animals. Evidence from behavioural sciences and neuroscience suggests that motor and brain development are strongly intertwined with the experiential process of \textit{exploration}, where internal body representations are formed and maintained over time. In order to guide our movements, our brain must hold an internal model of our body and constantly monitor its configuration state. How can sensorimotor control using such low-level body representations enable the development of more complex cognitive and motor capabilities? Although a clear answer has still not been found for this question, several studies suggest that processes of mental simulation of action-perception loops are likely to be executed in our brain and are dependent on internal body representations. Therefore, the capability to re-enact sensorimotor experience might represent a key mechanism behind the implementation of higher cognitive capabilities, such as behaviour recognition, arbitration and imitation, sense of agency and self-other distinction. Addressed mainly to researchers on autonomous motor and mental development in artificial agents, this work aims at gathering the latest development in the study on exploration behaviours, on internal body representations, on internal models, and on mechanisms for internal sensorimotor simulations. Relevant studies in human and animal sciences are discussed and a parallel to similar investigations in robotics is presented.
Highlights
The capability to perform sensory-guided motor behaviors, or sensorimotor control, is generally not fully developed at birth in mammals
We argued that mechanisms for sensorimotor simulation may be the bridge between low-level sensorimotor representations learned through experience and the implementation of basic cognitive skills in artificial agents
Several robotics studies showed that internal simulations and imagery can provide robots with capabilities, such as long-term prediction for navigation, behavior selection and recognition, and perception of the functional role of objects, and can even serve as a possible basis for the acquisition of the sense of agency and for the capability to distinguish between self and other
Summary
The capability to perform sensory-guided motor behaviors, or sensorimotor control, is generally not fully developed at birth in mammals. Evidence from human behavioral and brain sciences suggests that motor and brain development are strongly intertwined with this experiential process, where internal body representations would be formed and maintained over time It is still not clear how sensorimotor development is linked to the development of cognitive skills. Empirical investigation on exploration behaviors for the learning of sensorimotor control, on the functioning and modeling of simulation processes in the brain, and on their implementation in artificial agents is still fragmented. This paper aims at gathering the latest developments in the study on exploration behaviors, or internal body representations, and on re-using sensorimotor experience for cognition For each of these topics, relevant studies in human and animal sciences will be introduced and similar studies in robotics will be discussed. We believe that addressing both sensorimotor and cognitive development by simulation processes would bridge different specialties and provide new research directions for developmental robotics
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