Research article summary (published 30 Oct 2007):

Two modes of sensorimotor integration in intention-based and stimulus-based actions.

Full Abstract

Human actions may be driven endogenously (to produce desired environmental effects) or exogenously (to accommodate to environmental demands). There is a large body of evidence indicating that these two kinds of action are controlled by different neural substrates. However, only little is known about what happens--in functional terms--on these different "routes to action". Ideomotor approaches claim that actions are selected with respect to their perceptual consequences. We report experiments that support the validity of the ideomotor principle and that, at the same time, show that it is subject to a far-reaching constraint: It holds for endogenously driven actions only! Our results suggest that the activity of the two "routes to action" is based on different types of learning: The activity of the system guiding stimulus-based actions is accompanied by stimulus-response (sensorimotor) learning, whereas the activity of the system controlling intention-based actions results in action-effect (ideomotor) learning.

Author information

Author/s: Herwig, Arvid (A); Prinz, Wolfgang (W); Waszak, Florian (F);

Affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) (Q J Exp Psychol (Colchester)), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Nov; vol 60 (issue 11) : pp 1540-54

Dates: Created 2008/01/24; Completed 2008/03/07;

PMID: 17853217, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult Analysis of Variance Humans Intention Learning - physiology Motor Activity - physiology

Motor Skills - physiology Photic Stimulation - methods Psychomotor Performance - physiology Random Allocation Reaction Time - physiology Space Perception - physiology

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