Intentions and Motor Representations: the Interface Challenge

Abstract

A full account of purposive action must appeal not only to propositional attitude states like beliefs, desires, and intentions, but also to motor representations, i.e., non-propositional states that are thought to represent, among other things, action outcomes as well as detailed kinematic features of bodily movements. This raises the puzzle of how it is that these two distinct types of state successfully coordinate. We examine this so-called "Interface Problem". First, we clarify and expand on the nature and role of motor representations in explaining intentional action. Next, we characterize the respective functions of intentions and motor representations, the differences in representational format and content that these imply, and the interface challenge these differences in turn raise. We then evaluate Butterfill & Sinigaglia's (2014) recent answer to this interface challenge, according to which intentions refer to action outcomes by way of demonstrative deference to motor representations. We present some worries for this proposal, arguing that, among other things, it implicitly presupposes a solution to the problem, and so cannot help to resolve it. Finally, we suggest that we may make some progress on this puzzle by positing a "content-preserving causal process" taking place between intentions and motor representations, and we offer a proposal for how this might work.

Intentions: The dynamic hierarchical model revisited

“…6 It should be noted that it is unclear which extant views in the literature can actually be characterized as determination views. For example, while Burnston (2017) treats the view that Mylopoulos and Pacherie (2017) defend as a determination view, they maintain that proximal intentions activate corresponding motor schemas, which themselves contain open parameters that must be specified with the help of attention and context, which would seem to favor treating theirs as a biasing view instead. 7 As Fridland (2017) points out, the interface problem is also salient in recent hybrid accounts of skilled action that attempt to explain the intelligence of skill not merely by appeal to propositional knowledge or trained up dispositions, but rather by appeal to continuous interplay between control states and processes at both cognitive and motoric levels, with neither level being privileged as the locus of intelligence (e.g., Fridland, 2014Fridland, , 2017Levy, 2017;Christensen et al, 2016;Papineau, 2015).…”

“…Here we review three proposed solutions, including that of Butterfill and Sinigaglia (2014): (a) the deferral solution (Butterfill & Sinigaglia, 2014), (b) the motor schema solution (Mylopoulos & Pacherie, 2017), and (c) the dual-content solution (Shepherd, 2017a).…”

“…It should be noted that it is unclear which extant views in the literature can actually be characterized as determination views. For example, while Burnston () treats the view that Mylopoulos and Pacherie () defend as a determination view, they maintain that proximal intentions activate corresponding motor schemas, which themselves contain open parameters that must be specified with the help of attention and context, which would seem to favor treating theirs as a biasing view instead.…”

How aging affects the premotor control of lower limb movements in simulated gait

“…Motor representations map the kinematic and proprioceptive features of bodily movements: they develop when actions are actually executed (Jeannerod, ; Mylopoulos & Pacherie, ) and are somatotopically anchored to the cerebral cortex, in primary motor, premotor and parietal areas. The brain regions involved are prone to the anatomical and physiological challenges associated with aging (Seidler et al, ).…”

“…The executed (Jeannerod, 2001;Mylopoulos & Pacherie, 2017) and are somatotopically anchored to the cerebral cortex, in primary motor, premotor and parietal areas. The brain regions involved are prone to the anatomical and physiological challenges associated with aging (Seidler et al, 2010).…”