The emulation theory of representation: Motor control, imagery, and perception

“The Simulation view is a rapidly developing theoretical framework in cognitive science (Clark & Grush, 1999; Hesslow, 2002; Grush, 2004), and is used to explain cognitive processes ranging from perception to language, reasoning and theory of mind phenomena (Metzinger & Gallese, 2003; Svenson &…”

“As we will show below, all these changes of the visual input can be obtained also by directly applying the corresponding motor-induced sensory transformation without the need to effectively execute the action (this is a hallmark of action simulation or emulation theories; Grush, 2004; Jeannerod, 2006).”

“The ability to think about possibilities even before they are realized allows us to conceive of novel paths to take and to consider why we might take them [3].”

“Grush’s account serves this purpose well for three main reasons: first, it is compatible (as far as it goes) with a variety of views of visualization, including most of those that see it as a kind of “simulation” of visual perception; second, it is consistent with relevant neurological and psychophysical data concerni…”

“This can be done with associative (Hesslow, 2002) or anticipatory mechanisms (Grush, 2004; Wolpert & Ghahramani, 2004).”

“Factualization is a conceptual phenomenon determined by an embodied mechanism (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980 , 1999 ; Lakoff , 1987 , 2003 ; Grush, 2004 ; Gallese & Lakoff , 2005 ) of cyclic acquisition and control with respect to a new proposition P.”

“…probably requires that there should exist one or more separate ‘emulator systems’ which take efference copies as input and are capable of generating predictions about the likely future positions of the limbs and body, perhaps utilizing some sort of model of the kinematics of the body; Grush, 2004.)”

“…suggest that semantic knowledge remains, at least in part, grounded in its sensory and motor features (Barsalou, 1999, 2008; Borghi & Riggio, 2015; Grush, 2004; Vallet, Brunel, & Versace, Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article…”

“…5 | Article 54 | 1 HypotHesis and tHeory article published: 27 May 2011 doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2011.00054 emulations in motor control – forwarD moDels Grush (2004) has proposed an information processing theory to explain how animals demonstrate the ability to predict future environmental states…”

“As for the hypothesis that motor imagery involves mechanisms of feedforward control (Frey, 2010; Grush, 2004; Shadmehr and Krakauer, 2008), we found considerable similarities with the openloop condition, as well as some important distinctions.”

“In the absence 4 See, for example, Grush (2004), Clark and Grush (1999), and Clark (2001, Chaps.”

“…Grush’s “famous emulation theory, according to which motor control perception, and imagery make use of internal emulators of the body and the world” as an example of a theory in which representations occur which satisfy these conditions (Gładziejewski, 2015, p. 84; he refers to Grush, 1997, 2004).”

“This kind of models has proponents from theoretical [47], [48], [15],”

“This enables a novel view to the coding issue, for is then possible to relate the covariates to the causal states as generators of the spike train, rather than to the spike train itself.”

“2014) or Bcontrolled hallucination^ (Grush 2004) with which they can form judgements, tests hypotheses, and revise beliefs.”

“MI is assumed to be based on similar mechanisms as motor execution (ME; Grush, 2004; Jeannerod, 1995) because it involves similar brain regions (Munzert, Lorey, & Zentgraf, 2009) and”

“In Grush (2004), I describe a general purpose theory of representation—what I call he emulation theory—according to which the nervous system employs internal models of the represented domain, and the state of this model is the representation of some corresponding state of the represented entity or…”

“…humans can use to generate internal forward models when perceiving the action of others (Blakemore & Decety, 2001; Friston, Mattout, & Kilner, 2011; Grush, 2004; Kilner, Friston, & Frith, 2007; Prinz, 1997, 2006; Schütz-Bosbach & Prinz, 2007; Wilson & Knoblich, 2005; Wolpert, Doya, & Kawato,…”

“this picture the idea that representing means engaging in simulated interaction with the environment and with others, something that could be done by using (online or oZine) the same set of internal models implied in motor control (Grush, 2004).”

“In the emulation model proposed by [46], the emulator is a 129 device that implements the same input-output function as the body (i.”

“Even in execution mode, it may be useful to simulate the motion in parallel with execution, as this simulation can be used as part of a Kalman filter to assist in the control process (Grush, 2004).”

“4 Or as, Heras-Escribano et al. (2014) put it ‘‘everything that does not result in a loss of organization could be valued as something good (or at least ‘not bad’) for the organism’’ (p.”

“Over the recent years, research in cognitive neuroscience, psychology, and the mind in general has emphasized two very important aspects of brain structure and functionality: interactive modularity and sensorimotor codes [47, 51, 52, 89, 118].”

“Reverberation mechanisms similar to these and pivoting on forward models (here implemented by the POCi–POCl/s/r neural networks) have been extensively used as a proxy to represent planning based on mental imaging in bioinspired computational models (Baldassarre, 2003; Butz, Sigaud & Gérard, 2003; Grush, 2004; Ziemke,…”

“Simulation theory (see Berthoz, 1996; Grush, 2004) also argues that we observe and understand the actions of others by covertly simulating them.”

“It is assumed that forward models predict the imagined kinesthetic and imagined visual effects during imagery of actions (Grush, 2004).”

“The degree of (mis)match between actual and expected stimulus has two functions: (1) Adjustment of Control : the predicted signal can compensate time delays, filter or replace missing or unreliable stimuli; see [7] for a comparison with Kalman filtering; (2) Schema Selection: schemas which predict well gain activation.”

“Interactions with the experienced environment are often re-played or projected into the future by means of an internal predictive environmental model [18, 32, 40].”

“However, state estimation has frequently been regarded as an appropriate theoretical framework for describing several motor and cognitive neuroscience problems (Shadmehr andKrakauer 2008; Grush 2004; Schwartz 2016).”

“Various researchers 5,71,134–138 have proposed a plausible transition from pragmatic to more detached and descriptive representations, which can be condensed into two pivotal steps.”

“From this standpoint, serial rehearsal in STM tasks is akin to a covert Role of Serial Order 21 simulation (or forward model; cf. Grush, 2004) of those bodily movements that are best placed to mimic the presented material.”

“…engage in the unfolding acts of walking or talking as evidence that there must be a mechanism prior to these “overt” processes that is their source, such as a “forward model,” “internal model,” or an “emulator” (e.g., Grush, 2004; for criticism see e.g., Chemero, 2009; Dewey, 1896; Ingold, 2000).”

“Such forward models feature in influential theories of cognition (Churchland 2002) in the form of emulators (Craik 1943; Grush 2004 ).”

“Furthermore, the mirror neuron theory suggests that visual (or audio) representations of actions that are part of our motor repertoire can exploit an additional inferential process based on the emulation of analogous motor commands in our brain (Grush, 2004).”

“The idea that cognition is fundamentally anticipatory also follows a long tradition in psychology and cognitive science (Bartlett 1932; Craik 1943; Piaget 1970; Neisser 1976; Drescher 1991; Arbib 1992; Riegler 2001; Grush 2004; Castelfranchi 2005; Bar 2007).”

“Similarly, it is possible, that during AIP a full-fledged simulation of the action, including motor components, occurs (cf. Davidson & Wolpert, 2005; Grush, 2004; Ingram et al., 2019).”

“To undermine the idea that the best cognitive model capable of explaining cases of smooth coping is the one that draws no firm boundaries between the bodily self and the external resources, Rupert may appeal to the emulator theory (Grush, 2004).”

“…it is even more useful to be able to sever representations from their worldly correlations, run internal computations that make use of their interconnections, and then restore their input – output profile so that the conclusions that have been worked out offline can be used to guide behaviour.”

“One way of interpreting the possible auditory function of areas normally associated with speech production is in terms of internal forward model structures, or “emulators” as they are known in motor control theory (Grush 2004).”

“…models is that they afford forms of internal manipulation and inference—for example, when they are used to steer sensorimotor predictions of action consequences—and for this they are sometimes called “action-oriented” or “embodied representations” (Clark & Grush, 1999; Grush, 2004; Pezzulo, 2008).”

“own body (holding information about the spatial relation between one’s parts, biomechanical constraints, the orientation of body segments in the external space, and even its kinematics—Wilson & Knoblich, 2005)might be used by the visual system asmodel information for either one’s own body, that of a third person, or e…”

“In MI, assuming that motor commands are generated, forward models may predict the action effects in a similar way [22,23] (Figure 1).”

“See Grush (2004).”

“By doing this, incoming proprioceptive information can be filtered from information induced by motor commands [Grush, 2004].”

“For numerous authors, this demonstrates that the perception of others' bodies and movements is supported by somatosensory and motor representations of our own body (Grush, 2004; Hommel, Müsseler, Aschersleben, & Prinz, 2001; Wilson & Knoblich, 2005).”

“A final approach involving a form of action is the emulation theory (Grush 1998, 2004).”

“There is clear evidence that nervous systems use such internal models to perform predict ive motor control, imagery, inference, and planning in a way that involves a simulation o f actions and their perceptual implications [1, 2].”

“Our theory is based on Grush’s emulation theory of mental representation [124].”

“The possible mechanisms for MI include psycho-neuromuscular theory (Page et al., 2001) and motor simulation theory (namely the central theory)(Grush, 2004).”

“While this perspective has been emphasized in the reviews of Hesslow [32] [33], Grush, [29] among others, more recent developments on the organization of semantic knowledge in the brain (See [16] [48] [49] [57]) provide further insights that help to constrain computational architectures for cognitive agents.”

“Grush (2004) proposed that motor imagery drives an emulator of body when the emulator receives an efference copy, it releases an output signal same as an actual sensory feedback signal.”

“Accordingly, philosophers and neuroscientists agree that we can have visual experience of geometrical and shape properties (Siegel 2016; Nanay 2011, 2012a, b, 2013), as well as that we can form and superimpose visuomotor imagery on them (Briscoe 2011, 2018; Grush 2004).”