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Actie - Acting on Objects

5 important questions on Actie - Acting on Objects

What happens when there is damage to the dorsal and ventral streams?

1. Ventral route: visual agnosia that impairs her ability to recognize objects from vision, despite intact basic visual processes.

2. Dorsal stream: Optic ataxia, unable to accurately reach toward objects under visual guidance.

What are three ways in which neurons code information relevant to the process of information linked to enable sensorimotot transformation?

1. Neurons that code specific types of actions

2. Neurons that code action-relevant properties of objects: Anterior intraparietal area (AIP)

3. Neurons that code sensory information across different modalities:

How are tools represented in the brain:

1. A stored visual representation of the shape of the shape of the object that is computed by the visual ventral stream

2. A semantic representation of the object linked to medial and anterior temporal lobes

3. A volumetric representation of the tool that has both visual and motoric components related to grasping (AIP)

4. A motor-based component that stores the convential gestures associated with the tool

What is ideomotor apraxia?

Some patients with damage to the left parietal lobe may be unable to produce appropriate actions on command given either an object, a word or a command.

What are the three possibilities in the debate that concerns the extent to which semantic representations of objects are critical for the production of object-related gestures?

1. One could fractionate semantic knowledge itself into separate stores with a separate, impaired store of functional knowledge.

2. Suggest that there is a direct route from the structural description of objects to their actions, that bypasses semantic memory altogether.

3. There could be a mechanism that links together sensory and motor properties of objects that is independent of their conventional usage.