Abstract
In this article, a neural model for generating and learning a rapid ballistic movement sequence in two-dimensional (2D) space is presented and evaluated in the light of some considerations about handwriting generation. The model is based on a central nucleus (called a planning space) consisting of a fully connected grid of leaky integrators simulating neurons, and reading an input vectorΞ(t) which represents the external movement of the end effector. The movement sequencing results in a succession of motor strokes whose instantiation is controlled by the global activation of the planning space as defined by a competitive interaction between the neurons of the grid. Constraints such as spatial accuracy and movement time are exploited for the correct synchronization of the impulse commands. These commands are then fed into a neuromuscular synergy whose output is governed by a delta lognormal equation. Each movement sequence is memorized originally as a symbolic engram representing the sequence of the principal reference points of the 2D movement. These points, called virtual targets, correspond to the targets of each single rapid motor stroke composing the movement sequence. The task during the learning phase is to detect the engram corresponding to a new observed movement; the process is controlled by the dynamics of the neural grid.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abend W, Bizzi E, Morasso P (1982) Human arm trajectory formation. Brain 105:331–348
Bernstein N (1967) The co-ordination and regulation of movements. Pergamon, Oxford
Denis M, Cocude M (1989) Scanning visual images generated from verbal descriptions. Eur J Cogn Psychol 1:293–307
Erwin E, Obermayer K, Shulten K (1992) Self-organizing maps:ordering, convergence properties, and energy functions. Biol Cybern 67:47–55
Fitts P M (1954) The information capacity of the human motor system in controlling the amplitude of movement. J Exp Psychol 35A:251–278
Hardcastle WJ (1977) Physiology of speech production. Academic Press, London
Hubel DH, Wiesel TN (1977) Functional architecture of macaque monkey visual cortex. Proc R Soc Lond [Biol] 198:11–59
Jeannerod M (1990) The representation of the goal of an action and its role in the control of goal-directed movements. In: Schwartz EL (ed) Computational neuroscience. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., pp 352–368
Jeannerod M (1994) The representing brain:neural correlates of motor intention and imagery. Behav Brain Sci 17:187–245
Kass JH, Nelson RJ, Sur M, Lin CS, Merzenich MM (1979) Multiple representations of the body within the primary somatosensory cortex of primates. Science 204:521–523
Keele SW, Cohen A, Ivry R (1990) Motor programs: concepts and issues. In:Jeannerod M (ed) Attention and performance XIII. Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale
Kohonen T (1982) Self organizing formation of topologically correct feature maps. Biol Cybern 43:59–69
Kohonen T (1988) Self organization and associative memory. Springer, Berlin
Lashley KS (1951) The problem of serial order in behavior. In: Jeffress LA (ed) Cerebral mechanism and behavior. Wiley, New York, pp 112–136
Liberman AM, Mattingly LG (1985) The motor theory of perception of speech revisited. Cognition 21:1–36
Marshall JA (1990) Self-organizing neural networks for perception of visual motion. Neural Networks 3:45–74
Martinetz T (1993) Competitive hebbian learning rule forms perfectly topology preserving maps. In: Gielen S, Kappen B (ed) Proc of the International Conference on ANN'93. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 427–434
Martinetz T, Schulten K (1991) A ‘neural-gas’ network learns topologies. In: Kohonen T, Makisara K, Simula O, Kangas J (ed) Artificial neural networks. North-Holland, Amsterdam
Meulenbroek RG, Thomassen AJWM (1991) Stroke-direction preferences in drawing and handwriting. Human Movement Sci 10: 247–270
Meyer DE, Smith JEK, Kornblum S, Abrams RA, Wright CE (1990) Speed-accuracy tradeoffs in aimed movements. Toward a theory of rapid voluntary action. In: Jeannerod M (ed) Attention and performance XIII: motor representation and control. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, pp 173–226
Morasso P (1981) Spatial control of arm movements. Exp Brain Res 42:223–227
Morasso P, Sanguineti V (1994) Cortical representation of external space. In: Marinaro M, Morasso P (ed) International conference on artificial neural networks. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 1247–1252
Papoulis A (1981) The Fourier integral and its applications. McGraw-Hill, New York
Plamondon R (1992) A model-based segmentation framework for computer processing of handwriting. Proc of the 11th International Conference on Pattern Recognition, pp 303–307
Plamondon R (1993) Looking at handwriting generation from a velocity control perspective. Acta Psychol (Special issue on motor control of handwriting) 82:89–101
Plamondon R (1995a) A kinematic theory of rapid human movements. Part 1. Movement representation and generation. Biol Cybern 72:297–307
Plamondon R (1995b) A kinematic theory of rapid human movements. Part 2. Movement time and control. Biol Cybern 72: 309–320
Plamondon R, Alimi A (1996) Speed-accuracy trade-offs in target directed movements. Behav Brain Sci (accepted for publication)
Privitera CM, Morasso P (1994) The analysis of continuous temporal sequences by a map of sequential leaky integrators. Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Neural Networks, Orlando. 5:3127–3130
Privitera CM, Starita A (1991) A symbolic reasoning system for motor planning. Technical report. Department of Computer Science, University of Pisa
Privitera CM, Sanguineti V, Morasso P (1993) Temporal sequences generation and computational maps. Proceedings of Neuro-Nimes'93: Neural Networks and their Industrial and Cognitive Applications, Nimes, pp 55–64
Reiss M, Taylor JG (1991) Storing temporal sequences. Neural Neworks 4:773–787
Rizzolati G, Camarda R, Fogassi L, Gentilucci M, Luppino G, Matelli M (1988) Functional organization of area 6 in the macaque monkey. II. Area f5 and the control of distal movements. Exp Brain Res 71:491–507
Schwartz JL, Beautemps D, Arrouas Y, Escudier P (1991) Auditory analysis of speech gestures. The Psychophysics of Speech Perception II, Utrecht
Specht DF (1990) Probabilistic neural networks. Neural Networks 3:109–118
Stark L (1989) Neurological ballistic movements: sampled data or intermittent open-loop control. Behav Brain Sci 5:564–566
Suga N, O'Neill WE (1979) Neural axis representing target range in the auditory cortex of the mustache bat. Science 206:351–353
Taylor JG (1990) Temporal patterns and leaky integrator neurons. In:Thellier N (ed) International Neural Network Conference INNC'90, Paris, pp 952–954
Thomassen AJWM (1992) Interaction of cognitive and biomechanical factors in the organization of graphic movements. In: Stelmach GE, Requin J (ed) Tutorials in motor behavior II. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 249–261
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Plamondon, R., Privitera, C.M. A neural model for generating and learning a rapid movement sequence. Biol. Cybern. 74, 117–130 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00204200
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00204200