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The discrete and continuous brain: From decisions to movement-and back again

Parr, T; Friston, KJ; (2018) The discrete and continuous brain: From decisions to movement-and back again. Neural Computation , 30 (9) pp. 2319-2347. 10.1162/neco_a_01102. Green open access

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Abstract

To act upon the world, creatures must change continuous variables such as muscle length or chemical concentration. In contrast, decision making is an inherently discrete process, involving the selection among alternative courses of action. In this article, we consider the interface between the discrete and continuous processes that translate our decisions into movement in a Newtonian world-and how movement informs our decisions. We do so by appealing to active inference,with a special focus on the oculomotor system. Within this exemplar system, we argue that the superior colliculus is well placed to act as a discrete-continuous interface. Interestingly, when the neuronal computations within the superior colliculus are formulated in terms of active inference, we find that many aspects of its neuroanatomy emerge from the computations it must perform in this role.

Type: Article
Title: The discrete and continuous brain: From decisions to movement-and back again
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1162/neco_a_01102
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1162/neco_a_01102
Language: English
Additional information: This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For a full description of the license, please visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > Imaging Neuroscience
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10055087
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