Motor memories of object dynamics are categorically organized

Cesanek, Evan; Zhang, Zhaoran; Ingram, James N.; Wolpert, Daniel M.; Flanagan, J. Randall

doi:10.7554/elife.71627

Cited by 15 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 132 publications

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“…Indeed, there are reasons to think that categorization in motor control may share key features identified in this literature. For instance, in our initial study 15 , we found a strong single-category focus when making sensorimotor predictions, similar to empirical findings in a reasoning task 20 , 21 , as well as all-or-nothing formation of new object categories, consistent with prominent computational models of category learning 17 , 18 . However, there are many unique aspects of motor control that may engage categorization in a different way 22 .…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 86%

“…In a recent study, we obtained clear evidence that memories of the motor-relevant properties of objects are organized into categories 15 . As described in detail below, when participants repeatedly lift a constant-density “family” of objects, and then a similar object with a greater density (an outlier) is introduced, they often fail to learn the weight of the outlier, persistently treating it as a family member despite repeated errors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Memory, perceptual, and motor costs affect the strength of categorical encoding during motor learning of object properties

Cesanek

Flanagan

Wolpert

2023

Sci Rep

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Nearly all tasks of daily life involve skilled object manipulation, and successful manipulation requires knowledge of object dynamics. We recently developed a motor learning paradigm that reveals the categorical organization of motor memories of object dynamics. When participants repeatedly lift a constant-density “family” of cylindrical objects that vary in size, and then an outlier object with a greater density is interleaved into the sequence of lifts, they often fail to learn the weight of the outlier, persistently treating it as a family member despite repeated errors. Here we examine eight factors (Similarity, Cardinality, Frequency, History, Structure, Stochasticity, Persistence, and Time Pressure) that could influence the formation and retrieval of category representations in the outlier paradigm. In our web-based task, participants (N = 240) anticipated object weights by stretching a virtual spring attached to the top of each object. Using Bayesian t-tests, we analyze the relative impact of each manipulated factor on categorical encoding (strengthen, weaken, or no effect). Our results suggest that category representations of object weight are automatic, rigid, and linear and, as a consequence, the key determinant of whether an outlier is encoded as a member of the family is its discriminability from the family members.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Memory, perceptual, and motor costs affect the strength of categorical encoding during motor learning of object properties

Cesanek

Flanagan

Wolpert

2023

Sci Rep

Self Cite

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“…There is however compelling human fMRI evidence that parietal and frontal cortex are deeply involved in perceiving and predicting physical events 42 , and have unique abstract signals for stability not detected in ventral pathway 43 (though these could reflect decision-making processes 44, 45 ). Our results and others 46–48 suggest nonetheless that ventral pathway object and scene processing may be a critical source of information about gravity and its effects on objects, especially when detailed object representations are needed to assess precise shape, structure, support, strength, flexibility, compressibility, brittleness, specific gravity, mass distribution, and mechanical features to understand real world physical situations.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 52%

Object representation in a gravitational reference frame

Emonds

Srinath

Nielsen

et al. 2022

Preprint

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When your head tilts laterally, as in sports, reaching, and resting, your eyes counterrotate less than 20%, and thus eye images rotate, over a total range of about 180deg. Yet, the world appears stable and vision remains normal. We discovered a neural strategy for rotational stability in anterior inferotemporal cortex (IT), the final stage of object vision in primates. We measured object orientation tuning of IT neurons in macaque monkeys tilted +25 and -25deg laterally, producing ~40deg difference in retinal image orientation. Among IT neurons with consistent object orientation tuning, 63% remained stable with respect to gravity across tilts. Gravitational tuning depended on vestibular/somatosensory but also visual cues, consistent with previous evidence that IT processes scene cues for gravity's orientation. In addition to stability across image rotations, an internal gravitational reference frame is important for physical understanding of a world where object position, posture, structure, shape, movement, and behavior interact critically with gravity.

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“…The sample size we selected was based on previous work in this field [e.g. 8 – 10 ] showing that 8–12 participants per group results in robust group effects, meaningful effect sizes, and effects that are observed in the majority of individual participants.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reach adaption to a visuomotor gain with terminal error feedback involves reinforcement learning

2022

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Motor adaptation can be achieved through error-based learning, driven by sensory prediction errors, or reinforcement learning, driven by reward prediction errors. Recent work on visuomotor adaptation has shown that reinforcement learning leads to more persistent adaptation when visual feedback is removed, compared to error-based learning in which continuous visual feedback of the movement is provided. However, there is evidence that error-based learning with terminal visual feedback of the movement (provided at the end of movement) may be driven by both sensory and reward prediction errors. Here we examined the influence of feedback on learning using a visuomotor adaptation task in which participants moved a cursor to a single target while the gain between hand and cursor movement displacement was gradually altered. Different groups received either continuous error feedback (EC), terminal error feedback (ET), or binary reinforcement feedback (success/fail) at the end of the movement (R). Following adaptation we tested generalization to targets located in different directions and found that generalization in the ET group was intermediate between the EC and R groups. We then examined the persistence of adaptation in the EC and ET groups when the cursor was extinguished and only binary reward feedback was provided. Whereas performance was maintained in the ET group, it quickly deteriorated in the EC group. These results suggest that terminal error feedback leads to a more robust form of learning than continuous error feedback. In addition our findings are consistent with the view that error-based learning with terminal feedback involves both error-based and reinforcement learning.

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Motor memories of object dynamics are categorically organized

Cited by 15 publications

References 132 publications

Memory, perceptual, and motor costs affect the strength of categorical encoding during motor learning of object properties

Memory, perceptual, and motor costs affect the strength of categorical encoding during motor learning of object properties

Object representation in a gravitational reference frame

Reach adaption to a visuomotor gain with terminal error feedback involves reinforcement learning

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