Traditional approaches to human information processing tend to deal with perception and action planning in isolation, so that an adequate account of the perception-action interface is still missing On the perceptual side, the dominant cognitive view largely underestimates, and thus fails to account for, the impact of action-related processes on both the processing of perceptual information and on perceptual learning On the action side, most approaches conceive of action planning as a mere continuation of stimulus processing, thus failing to account for the goal-directedness of even the simplest reaction in an experimental task We propose a new framework for a more adequate theoretical treatment of perception and action planning, in which perceptual contents and action plans are coded in a common representational medium by feature codes with distal reference Perceived events (perceptions) and to-be-produced events (actions) are equally represented by integrated, task-tuned networks of feature codes – cognitive structures we call event codes We give an overview of evidence from a wide variety of empirical domains, such as spatial stimulus-response compatibility, sensorimotor synchronization, and ideomotor action, showing that our main assumptions are well supported by the data

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0140525X01000103

The Theory of Event Coding (TEC): a framework for perception and action planning.

Overlapping mechanisms of attention and spatial working memory.

https://www.cell.com/neuron/pdf/S0896-6273(07)00376-5.pdf

Brain states: top-down influences in sensory processing.

A growing body of research suggests that comprehending verbal descriptions of actions relies on an internal simulation of the described action. To assess this motor resonance account of language comprehension, we first review recent developments in the literature on perception and action, with a view towards language processing. We then examine studies of language processing from an action simulation perspective. We conclude by discussing several criteria that might be helpful with regard to assessing the role of motor resonance during language comprehension.

Embodied language: A review of the role of the motor system in language comprehension

Intention, action planning, and decision making in parietal-frontal circuits.

The primate visual system can be divided into a ventral stream for perception and recognition and a dorsal stream for computing spatial information for motor action. How are selection mechanisms in both processing streams coordinated? We recently demonstrated that selection-for-perception in the ventral stream (usually termed “visual attention”) and saccade target selection in the dorsal stream are tightly coupled (Deubel & Schneider, 1996). Here we investigate whether such coupling also holds for the preparation of manual reaching movements. A dual-task paradigm required the preparation of a reaching movement to a cued item in a letter string. Simultaneously, the ability to discriminate between the symbols “E” and “∃” presented tachistoscopically within the surrounding distractors was taken as a measure of perceptual performance. The data demonstrate thatdiscrimination performance is superior when the discrimination stimulus is also the target for manual aiming; when the discrimination stimulus and point...

Selective Dorsal and Ventral Processing: Evidence for a Common Attentional Mechanism in Reaching and Perception

A dual-task paradigm required the preparation of a goal-directed movement (hand or eye) concurrently with a letter discrimination task. In the first experiment a hand movement to a location on a virtual circle was required and indicated by a central cue. Simultaneously, the ability to discriminate between the symbols “E” and “3”, presented tachioscopically with various delays on a circular position within surrounding distractors, was taken as a measure of selective perceptual performance. The location of discrimination target remained constant within blocks and was known to the subjects. In the second experiment a saccadic eye movement was required instead of a pointing movement. The data in both experiments clearly demonstrate that discrimination performance is superior when the discrimination target location (DT) is identical to the location of the movement target (MT). When DT and MT refer to different objects, performance deteriorates drastically. We conclude that it is not possible to maintain attention on a stimulus for the purpose of discrimination while preparing a movement to a spatially separate object. This holds, in a quantitatively similar way, for both saccades and manual pointing.

Object Recognition and Goal-Directed Eye or Hand Movements are Coupled by Visual Attention

We recently demonstrated that visual attention before saccadic eye movements is focused on the saccade target, allowing for spatially selective object recognition (Deubel and Schneider Vision Resea...

Ingo Paprotta

Papers

Selective Dorsal and Ventral Processing: Evidence for a Common Attentional Mechanism in Reaching and Perception

Object Recognition and Goal-Directed Eye or Hand Movements are Coupled by Visual Attention

Visual attention and manual aiming: Evidence for obligatory and selective spatial coupling