Output details

Dissociating Variability and Effort as Determinants of Coordination

Dominant theories of computational neuroscience postulate that motor behaviours correspond to the optimisation of a cost function, but previous experiments could not decide whether motion variability or effort is used in the cost function. Using a simple redundant paradigm, we demonstrate that both of these factors are considered by the central nervous system, but effort is dominant. This fundamental result has been adopted in reference textbooks such as Shadmehr and Mussa-Ivaldi’s book "Biological Learning and Control" (MIT Press, 2012) and in review papers e.g. by Wolpert and Landy (Current Opinion in Neurology 2012;22:1–8).