Connectionists: New Paper: "From motor to sensory processing in mirror neuron computational modelling"

[Roberto Prevete]

Dear colleagues,

I would like to draw your attention to a paper we recently
published in Biological Cybernetics,Volume 103, Number 6/December 2010,
471-485, DOI: 10.1007/s00422-010-0415-5.

A different approach to the computational modelling of mirror neurons,
inspired by the direct matching hypothesis, is pursued there.
Indeed, mirror  activity is hypothesized to code for motor information
which is supplied to the visual system for the purpose of interpreting
sensory inputs.
More specifically, this model assigns a central functional role to mirror
mechanisms in visual perception, predicting that motor information coded by
mirror neurons simplifies the processing of sensory (visual) inputs and
improves the results of action recognition tasks.

TITLE: From motor to sensory processing in mirror neuron computational
modelling

AUTHORS: Giovanni Tessitore, Roberto Prevete, Ezio Catanzariti, Guglielmo
Tamburrini (University of Naples Federico II, Dept. Scienze Fisiche,
Italy)

ABSTRACT:
Typical patterns of hand-joint covariation arising in the context of
grasping actions enable one to provide simplified descriptions of these
actions in terms of small sets of hand-joint parameters. The computational
model of mirror mechanisms introduced here hypothesizes that mirror
neurons are crucially involved in coding and making this simplified motor
information available for both action recognition and control processes.
In particular, grasping action recognition processes are modeled in terms
of a visuo-motor loop enabling one to make iterated use of mirror-coded
motor information. In simulation experiments concerning the classification
of reach-to-grasp actions, mirror-coded information was found to simplify
the processing of visual inputs and to improve action recognition results
with respect to recognition procedures that are solely based on visual
processing. The visuo-motor loop involved in action recognition is
a distinctive feature of this model which is coherent with the direct
matching hypothesis. Moreover, the visuo-motor loop sets the model
introduced here apart from those computational models that identify mirror
neuron activity in action observation with the final outcome of
computational processes unidirectionally flowing from sensory (and usually
visual) to motor systems.

Best regards,
Roberto Prevete
-------------
Dept. of Scienze Fisiche
University of Naples Federico II
Italy
http://vinelab.na.infn.it/