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Role of the Cerebellum in Time-Critical Goal-Oriented Behaviour: Anatomical Basis and Control Principle

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Book cover Emergent Neural Computational Architectures Based on Neuroscience

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 2036))

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Abstract

The Brain is a slow computer yet humans can skillfully play games such as tennis where very fast reactions are required. Of particular interest is the evidence for strategic thinking despite planning time being denied by the speed of the game. A review of data on motor and cognitive effects of cerebellar lesions leads to propose that the brain minimizes reaction time during skilled behaviour by eliminating on-line planning. Planning of the next action is concurrent with the execution of the current action. The cerebellum plays a role in preparing fast visuo-motor pathways to produce goal-specific responses to sensory stimuli.. Anatomically, the cerebellum projects to all extra-striate components of the fast sensory-motor route: Posterior parietal cortex (PPC), Premotor cortex (PM) and Motor Cortex (M1). Indirect evidences suggest that the cerebellum sets up stimulus-reaction (S-R) sets at the level of the PPC. Among unresolved issues is the question of how S-R mappings are selected in PPC, how planning is performed and how the cerebellum is informed of plans. Computationally, the proposed principle of off-line planning of S-R associations poses interesting problems: i) planning must now define both the stimulus and the action that it will trigger. ii) There is uncertainty on the stimulus that will appear at the time of execution. Hence the planning process needs to produce not a single optimal solution but a field of solutions. It is proposed here that problem i) can be solved if only learned S-R associations are involved. Problem ii) can be solved if the neural network for S-R mapping has appropriate generalization properties. This is demonstrated with an artificial neural network example using normalized radial basis functions (NRBF). Planning a single optimal trajectory enables to generate appropriate motor command event for initial states outside of the optimal trajectory. Current implementations include a simulated robot arm and the control of a real autonomous wheelchair. In terms of control theory, the principles proposed in this paper unify purely behaviour-based approaches and approaches based on planning using internal representations. On one hand sensory-motor associations enable fast reactions and on the other hand, being products of planning, these associations enable flexible goal adaptation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Neural and Adaptive Systems, School of Computing, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, PL, 4 8AA, UK

    Guido Bugmann

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  1. Guido Bugmann
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre of Informatics, SCET, University of Sunderland, St PetersWay, Sunderland SR6 0DD, UK

    Stefan Wermter

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of York, York, Y010 5DD, UK

    Jim Austin

  3. Institute for Adaptive and Neural Computation, University of Edinburgh, 5 Forrest Hill, Edinburgh, UK

    David Willshaw

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Bugmann, G. (2001). Role of the Cerebellum in Time-Critical Goal-Oriented Behaviour: Anatomical Basis and Control Principle. In: Wermter, S., Austin, J., Willshaw, D. (eds) Emergent Neural Computational Architectures Based on Neuroscience. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 2036. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44597-8_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44597-8_19

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