Forward and Inverse Models in Motor Control and Cognitive Control

It is now commonly accepted that the motor system makes use of so-called forward and inverse models in order to control the musculoskeletal system during rapid, skilled, motor behaviour. Inverse models are held to allow the system to determine the motor commands necessary to achieve a desired state, while forward models are held to allow the system to predict the expected sensory feedback of a motor command, allowing rapid error detection when actual and predicted feedback do not match. It has recently been suggested that these ideas from control theory might also be applied to the control of cognitive processes, allowing (for example) the cognitive system to anticipate processing conflict and pre-emptively minimise it by adjusting processing strategies or the allocation of processing resources.This paper reviews theories of cognitive control that are broadly consistent with the use of complementary forward and inverse models. It is argued that there is indeed a role for such models in cognitive control – particularly in relation to a putative monitoring function – but that the models involved are likely to be somewhat impoverished.