Dynamic Selectivity in a Continuous Attractor Model of Movement Generation

The ability to discriminate between self and others movements is an important ability at the basis of our capacity to relate to others socially and to learn by imitation {Billard2002}. Current body of evidence suggests a common neural substrate to the recognition and production of movements in both humans and monkeys {Iacoboni1999, Rizzolatti2001}. A behavioral correlate of such discovery, related in several psychophysics experiments {e.g. Kilner2003}, is that observing movements of others influences the quality of one's performance. The observation of such an interference effect, while supporting the view of a common pathway for the transfer of visuo-motor information, calls for an explanation as to how the same substrate can both integrate multi-sensory information and determine, i.e. select, the origin of the observed movement.