FBS Colloquia No.384Center for Information and Neural Networks

Motor Memory embedded in Context

In a critical game situation, even if you know that a 160 km/h fastball can strike out the batter, that knowledge is meaningless if you cannot retrieve the appropriate motor program (motor memory) to execute the pitch. While contextual retrieval of motor memory has been a major topic in cognitive neuroscience, contextual cues have traditionally been assumed to involve only factors directly related to motor execution. In contrast, our recent findings demonstrate that the uncertainty associated with the decision preceding an action - a covert internal state - can also serve as a contextual cue for motor memory. In this lecture, I will summarise these findings and discuss the principles that govern how contextual cues are bound to motor memory.