Chapter 23 Information transfer between sensory and motor networks

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the information transfer between sensory and motor networks. The sensory and motor structures of the brain encode information in various different formats. Sensorimotor transformations interface the sensory and motor systems. They have two main tasks to solve. First, they must convert between the different coding formats. Second, they must fuse the different sensory and motor input signals and establish a unified representation of the environment and the organism's action within it. The fibers of the retinal ganglion cells form a thick parallel bundle, called the “optic tract,” from which branches run to several parallel retinal recipient structures. The main cortical pathway is via the thalamus to the primary visual cortex, or area V1. Other important pathways are those to the superior colliculus and to the accessory optic system and pretectum. Each retinal ganglion cell transmits information from a small-localized part of the visual image, known as its “receptive field.” The chapter discusses the position of the limbs and the activity of the muscles; this is known as “proprioceptive information” and is generated by spindle fibers in the muscles.