The nerve ring of the nematodeCaenorhabditis elegans: Sensory input and motor output

1975 ◽  
Vol 162 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randle W. Ware ◽  
David Clark ◽  
Kathryn Crossland ◽  
Richard L. Russell
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas R. Zentall

The hypothesis proposed by Macphail (1987) is that differences in intelligent behavior thought to distinguish different species were likely attributed to differences in the context of the tasks being used. Once one corrects for differences in sensory input, motor output, and incentive, it is likely that all vertebrate animals have comparable intellectual abilities. In the present article I suggest a number of tests of this hypothesis with pigeons. In each case, the evidence suggests that either there is evidence for the cognitive behavior, or the pigeons suffer from biases similar to those of humans. Thus, Macphail’s hypothesis offers a challenge to researchers to find the appropriate conditions to bring out in the animal the cognitive ability being tested.


Perception ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (9) ◽  
pp. 1153-1155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Lewin Altschuler

I have noticed a striking effect that vision can have on movement: when a person makes circular motions with both hands, clockwise with the left hand, counterclockwise with the right hand, while watching the reflection of one hand in a parasagitally placed mirror, if one arm makes a vertical excursion, the other arm tends to make the same vertical excursion, but not typically if the excursing arm is viewed in plain vision. This observation may help in understanding how visual feedback via a mirror may be beneficial for rehabilitation of some patients with movement deficits secondary to certain neurologic conditions, and illustrates that the traditional division of neural processes into sensory input and motor output is somewhat arbitrary.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Heffley ◽  
Eun Young Song ◽  
Ziye Xu ◽  
Benjamin N. Taylor ◽  
Mary Anne Hughes ◽  
...  

AbstractThe prevailing model of cerebellar learning states that climbing fibers (CFs) are both driven by, and serve to correct, erroneous motor output. However, this model is grounded largely in studies of behaviors that utilize hardwired neural pathways to link sensory input to motor output. To test whether this model applies to more flexible learning regimes that require arbitrary sensorimotor associations, we have developed a cerebellar-dependent motor learning paradigm compatible with both mesoscale and single dendrite resolution calcium imaging in mice. Here, we find that CFs are preferentially driven by and more time-locked to correctly executed movements and other task parameters that predict reward outcome, exhibiting widespread correlated activity within parasagittal processing zones that is governed by these predictions. Together, such CF activity patterns are well-suited to drive learning by providing predictive instructional input consistent with an unsigned reinforcement learning signal that does not rely exclusively on motor errors.


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