Intention, action planning, and decision making in parietal-frontal circuits

Neuron. 2009 Sep 10;63(5):568-83. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2009.08.028.

Abstract

The posterior parietal cortex and frontal cortical areas to which it connects are responsible for sensorimotor transformations. This review covers new research on four components of this transformation process: planning, decision making, forward state estimation, and relative-coordinate representations. These sensorimotor functions can be harnessed for neural prosthetic operations by decoding intended goals (planning) and trajectories (forward state estimation) of movements as well as higher cortical functions related to decision making and potentially the coordination of multiple body parts (relative-coordinate representations).

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Attention / physiology
  • Biomechanical Phenomena
  • Decision Making / physiology*
  • Eye Movements / physiology
  • Frontal Lobe / physiology*
  • Goals
  • Humans
  • Learning / physiology
  • Mental Processes / physiology*
  • Models, Neurological
  • Motor Activity / physiology
  • Neural Pathways / physiology
  • Parietal Lobe / physiology*
  • Psychomotor Performance / physiology*
  • Time Factors
  • User-Computer Interface