In physiology, an efference copy or efferent copy is an internal copy of an outflowing ( efferent ), movement-producing signal generated by an organism's motor system. [1] It can be collated with the (reafferent) sensory input that results from the agent's movement, enabling a comparison of actual movement with desired movement, and a shielding of perception from particular self-induced effects on the sensory input to achieve perceptual stability. [1] Together with internal models, efference copies can serve to enable the brain to predict the effects of an action. [1]
An equal term with a different history is corollary discharge. [2]
Efference copies are important in enabling motor adaptation such as to enhance gaze stability. They have a role in the perception of self and nonself electric fields in electric fish. They also underlie the phenomenon of tickling.
A motor signal from the central nervous system (CNS) to the periphery is called an efference, and a copy of this signal is called an efference copy. Sensory information coming from sensory receptors in the peripheral nervous system to the central nervous system is called afference. On a similar basis, nerves into the nervous system are afferent nerves and ones out are termed efferent nerves.
When an efferent signal is produced and sent to the motor system, it has been suggested that a copy of the signal, known as an efference copy, is created so that exafference (sensory signals generated from external stimuli in the environment) can be distinguished from reafference (sensory signals resulting from an animal's own actions). [3]
This efference copy, by providing the input to a forward internal model, is then used to generate the predicted sensory feedback that estimates the sensory consequences of a motor command. The actual sensory consequences of the motor command are then deployed to compare with the corollary discharge to inform the CNS about how well the expected action matched its actual external action. [4]
Corollary discharge is characterized as an efference copy of an action command used to inhibit any response to the self generated sensory signal which would interfere with the execution of the motor task. The inhibitory commands originate at the same time as the motor command and target the sensory pathway that would report any reafference to higher levels of the CNS. This is unique from the efference copy, since the corollary discharge is actually fed into the sensory pathway to cancel out the reafferent signals generated by the movement. [3] Alternatively, corollary discharges briefly alters self-generated sensory responses to reduce self-induced desensitization or help distinguish between self-generated and externally generated sensory information. [5]
In 1811 Johann Georg Steinbuch (1770–1818) referred repeatedly to the problem of efference copy and reafference in his book "Beytrag zur Physiologie der Sinne" ("Contribution to the Physiology of Senses"). After studying medicine, Steinbuch worked for a number of years as lecturer at the University of Erlangen and thereafter as physician in Heidenheim, Ulm, and Herrenberg (Württemberg, South Germany). As a young university teacher, he was particularly interested in the brain mechanisms which enable the perception of space and objects, but in later years his attention shifted to the more practical problems of clinical medicine. Together with Justinus Kerner he gave a very precise description in 1817 of the clinical symptoms of botulism. In his book "Beytrag zur Physiologie der Sinne”, Steinbuch presented a very careful analysis of the tactile recognition of objects by the grasping hand. Hereby, he developed the hypothesis that the cerebral mechanisms controlling the movement of the hands interact within the brain with the afferent signal flow evoked in the mechanoreceptors while the grasping hand is moving across the surface of the object. The cerebral signals controlling the movement were called "Bewegidee" (motion idea). According to Steinbuch’s model, only by the interaction of the "Bewegidee" with the afferent signal flow did object recognition become possible. He illustrated his statements by a simple experiment: if an object passively activates the mechanoreceptors of the palm and fingers of a resting hand for sufficient sequences and time, object recognition is not achieved. When the hand, however, grasps actively, object recognition occurs within a few seconds. [6]
The first person to propose the existence of efferent copies was the German physician and physicist Hermann von Helmholtz in the middle of the 19th century. He argued that the brain needed to create an efference copy for the motor commands that controlled eye muscles so as to aid the brain's determining the location of an object relative to the head. His argument used the experiment in which one gently presses on one's own eye. If this is done, one notices that the visual world seems to have "moved" as a result of this passive movement of the eyeball. In contrast, if the eyeball is actively moved by the eye muscles the world is perceived as still. The reasoning made is that with a passive movement of the eyeball, no efferent copies are made as with active movements that allow sensory changes to be anticipated and controlled for with the result in their absence the world appears to move.
In 1900, Charles Sherrington, the founder of modern ideas about motor control, rejected von Helmholtz ideas and argued that efference copies were not needed as muscles had their own sense of the movements they made. "The view [of von Helmholtz and his followers] which dispenses with peripheral organs and afferent nerves for the muscular sense has had powerful adherents . . . It supposes that during ... a willed movement the outgoing current of impulses from brain to muscle is accompanied by a 'sensation for innervation'. ... it "remains unproven". [7] This resulted in the idea of efference copies being dropped for the next 75 years. [8]
In 1950, Erich von Holst and Horst Mittelstaedt investigated how species are able to distinguish between exafference and reafference given a seemingly identical percept of the two. [9] To explore this question, they rotated the head of a fly 180 degrees, effectively reversing the right and left edges of the retina and reversing the subject's subsequent reafferent signals. In this state, self-initiated movements of the fly would result in a perception that the world was also moving, rather than standing still as they would in a normal fly. After rotation of the eyes, the animal showed a reinforcement of the optokinetic response in the same direction as the moving visual input. Von Holst and Mittelstaedt interpreted their findings as evidence that corollary discharge (i.e. neural inhibition with active movement) could not have accounted for this observed change as this would have been expected to inhibit the optokinetic reaction. They concluded that an "Efferenzkopie" of the motor command was responsible for this reaction due to the persistence of the reafferent signal and given the consequent discrepancy between expected and actual sensory signals which reinforced the response rather than preventing it. [3] [10]
The Nobel Prize winner, Roger Wolcott Sperry argued for the basis of corollary discharges following his research upon the optokinetic reflex. [11] He is also regarded as the originator of the term "corollary discharge". [1]
Efference copy relates to Coriolis effect in a manner that allows for learning and correction of errors experienced from self-generated Coriolis forces. During trunk rotational movements there is a learned CNS anticipation of Coriolis effects, mediated by generation of an appropriate efference copy that can be compared to re-afferent information. [12] [13]
It has been proposed that efference copy has an important role in maintaining gaze stability with active head movement by augmenting the vestibulo-ocular reflex (aVOR) during dynamic visual acuity testing. [14]
Efference copy within an internal model allows us to grip objects in parallel to a given load. In other words, the subject is able to properly grip any load that they are provided because the internal model provides such a good prediction of the object without any delay. Flanagan and Wing tested to see whether an internal model is used to predict movement-dependent loads by observing grip force changes with known loads during arm movements. [15] They found that even when giving subjects different known loads the grip force was able to predict the load force. Even when the load force was suddenly changed the grip force never lagged in the phase relationship with the load force, therefore affirming the fact that there was an internal model in the CNS that was allowing for the proper prediction to occur. It has been suggested by Kawato that for gripping, the CNS uses a combination of the inverse and forward model. [16] With the use of the efference copy the internal model can predict a future hand trajectory, thus allowing for the parallel grip to the particular load of the known object.
Experiments have been conducted wherein subjects' feet are tickled both by themselves and with a robotic arm controlled by their own arm movements. These experiments have shown that people find a self-produced tickling motion of the foot to be much less “tickly” than a tickling motion produced by an outside source. They have postulated that this is because when a person sends a motor command to produce the tickling motion, the efference copy anticipates and cancels out the sensory outcome. This idea is further supported by evidence that a delay between the self-produced tickling motor command and the actual execution of this movement (mediated by a robotic arm) causes an increase in the perceived tickliness of the sensation. This shows that when the efference copy is incompatible with the afference, the sensory information is perceived as if it were exafference. Therefore, it is theorized that it is not possible to tickle ourselves because when the predicted sensory feedback (efference copy) matches the actual sensory feedback, the actual feedback will be attenuated. If the predicted sensory feedback does not match the actual sensory feedback, whether caused by a delay (as in the mediation by the robotic arm) or by external influences from the environment, the brain cannot predict the tickling motion on the body and a more intense tickling sensation is perceived. This is the reason why one cannot tickle oneself. [17]
It has been argued that motor efference copies play an important role in speech production. [18] Tian and Poeppel propose that a motor efference copy is used to produce a forward model of somatosensory estimation, which entails an estimation of the articulatory movement and position of the articulators as a result of planned motor action. [19] [18] A second (subsequent) auditory efference copy entails the estimation of auditory information as produced by the articulatory system in a second forward model. Both of these forward models can produce respective predictions and corollary discharge, which can in turn be used in comparisons with somatosensory and auditory feedback. Moreover, this system is thought by some to be the basis for inner speech, especially in relation to auditory verbal hallucinations. [20] [21] [22] In the case of inner speech, the efference signal is not sent or is inhibited before action takes place, leaving only the efference copy and leading to the perception of inner speech or inner hearing. [23] In the case of auditory verbal hallucinations, it is thought that a breakdown along the efference copy and forward model route creates a mismatch between what is expected and what is observed, leading to the experience that speech is not produced by oneself. [22] [21] Recent studies suggest that efference copy already occurs when an acoustic signal is generated at the press of a button. [24] The differences in the ERP signal of the efference copy are so severe that machine learning algorithms can distinguish between schizophrenia patients and healthy control subjects, for example. [25] Efference copies also occur not only with spoken words, but with inner language - the quiet production of words. [26]
The mormyrid electric fish provides an example of corollary discharge in lower vertebrates. [5] [27] [28] Specifically, the knollenorgan sensor (KS) is involved with electro-communication, detecting the electric organ discharges (EOD) of other fish. [27] [28] Unless the reafference was somehow modulated, the KS would also detect self generated EODs that would interfere with interpretation of external EODs needed for communication between fish. However, these fish display corollary discharges that inhibit the ascending sensory pathway at the first CNS relay point. [27] [28] These corollary discharges are timed to arrive at the same time as the reafference from the KS to minimize the interference of self-produced EODs with the perception of external EODs, and optimize the duration of inhibition. [28]
Alien hand syndrome (AHS) or Dr. Strangelove syndrome is a category of conditions in which a person experiences their limbs acting seemingly on their own, without conscious control over the actions. There are a variety of clinical conditions that fall under this category, which most commonly affects the left hand. There are many similar terms for the various forms of the condition, but they are often used inappropriately. The affected person may sometimes reach for objects and manipulate them without wanting to do so, even to the point of having to use the controllable hand to restrain the alien hand. Under normal circumstances however, given that intent and action can be assumed to be deeply mutually entangled, the occurrence of alien hand syndrome can be usefully conceptualized as a phenomenon reflecting a functional "disentanglement" between thought and action.
The somatic nervous system (SNS), also known as voluntary nervous system, is a part of the peripheral nervous system (PNS) that links brain and spinal cord to skeletal muscles under conscious control, as well as to sensory receptors in the skin. The other part complementary to the somatic nervous system is the autonomic nervous system (ANS).
The lateral line, also called the lateral line organ (LLO), is a system of sensory organs found in fish, used to detect movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelial cells, known as hair cells, which respond to displacement caused by motion and transduce these signals into electrical impulses via excitatory synapses. Lateral lines play an important role in schooling behavior, predation, and orientation.
Muscle spindles are stretch receptors within the body of a skeletal muscle that primarily detect changes in the length of the muscle. They convey length information to the central nervous system via afferent nerve fibers. This information can be processed by the brain as proprioception. The responses of muscle spindles to changes in length also play an important role in regulating the contraction of muscles, for example, by activating motor neurons via the stretch reflex to resist muscle stretch.
Efferent nerve fibers are the axons of efferent neurons that exit a particular region. These terms have a slightly different meaning in the context of the peripheral nervous system (PNS) and central nervous system (CNS). The efferent fiber is a long process projecting far from the neuron's body that carries nerve impulses away from the central nervous system toward the peripheral effector organs. A bundle of these fibers constitute an efferent nerve. The opposite direction of neural activity is afferent conduction, which carries impulses by way of the afferent nerve fibers of sensory neurons.
An event-related potential (ERP) is the measured brain response that is the direct result of a specific sensory, cognitive, or motor event. More formally, it is any stereotyped electrophysiological response to a stimulus. The study of the brain in this way provides a noninvasive means of evaluating brain functioning.
Sensory neurons, also known as afferent neurons, are neurons in the nervous system, that convert a specific type of stimulus, via their receptors, into action potentials or graded receptor potentials. This process is called sensory transduction. The cell bodies of the sensory neurons are located in the dorsal root ganglia of the spinal cord.
Sensory processing is the process that organizes and distinguishes sensation from one's own body and the environment, thus making it possible to use the body effectively within the environment. Specifically, it deals with how the brain processes multiple sensory modality inputs, such as proprioception, vision, auditory system, tactile, olfactory, vestibular system, interoception, and taste into usable functional outputs.
Motor control is the regulation of movements in organisms that possess a nervous system. Motor control includes conscious voluntary movements, subconscious muscle memory and involuntary reflexes, as well as instinctual taxis.
In neuroethology and the study of learning, anti-Hebbian learning describes a particular class of learning rule by which synaptic plasticity can be controlled. These rules are based on a reversal of Hebb's postulate, and therefore can be simplistically understood as dictating reduction of the strength of synaptic connectivity between neurons following a scenario in which a neuron directly contributes to production of an action potential in another neuron.
Proprioception is the sense of self-movement, force, and body position.
In the subject area of control theory, an internal model is a process that simulates the response of the system in order to estimate the outcome of a system disturbance. The internal model principle was first articulated in 1976 by B. A. Francis and W. M. Wonham as an explicit formulation of the Conant and Ashby good regulator theorem. It stands in contrast to classical control, in that the classical feedback loop fails to explicitly model the controlled system.
Chronostasis is a type of temporal illusion in which the first impression following the introduction of a new event or task-demand to the brain can appear to be extended in time. For example, chronostasis temporarily occurs when fixating on a target stimulus, immediately following a saccade. This elicits an overestimation in the temporal duration for which that target stimulus was perceived. This effect can extend apparent durations by up to half a second and is consistent with the idea that the visual system models events prior to perception.
Sensory-motor coupling is the coupling or integration of the sensory system and motor system. Sensorimotor integration is not a static process. For a given stimulus, there is no one single motor command. "Neural responses at almost every stage of a sensorimotor pathway are modified at short and long timescales by biophysical and synaptic processes, recurrent and feedback connections, and learning, as well as many other internal and external variables".
In neuroscience and motor control, the degrees of freedom problem or motor equivalence problem states that there are multiple ways for humans or animals to perform a movement in order to achieve the same goal. In other words, under normal circumstances, no simple one-to-one correspondence exists between a motor problem and a motor solution to the problem. The motor equivalence problem was first formulated by the Russian neurophysiologist Nikolai Bernstein: "It is clear that the basic difficulties for co-ordination consist precisely in the extreme abundance of degrees of freedom, with which the [nervous] centre is not at first in a position to deal."
Self-agency, also known as the phenomenal will, is the sense that actions are self-generated. Scientist Benjamin Libet was the first to study it, concluding that brain activity predicts the action before one even has conscious awareness of his or her intention to act upon that action. Daniel Wegner later defined the three criteria of self-agency: priority, exclusivity, and consistency.
Neurocomputational speech processing is computer-simulation of speech production and speech perception by referring to the natural neuronal processes of speech production and speech perception, as they occur in the human nervous system. This topic is based on neuroscience and computational neuroscience.
The emulation theory of representation postulates that there are multiple internal modeling circuitries in the brain referred to as emulators. These emulators mimic the input-output patterns of many cognitive operations including action, perception, and imagery. Often running in parallel, these emulators provide resultant feedback in the form of mock sensory signals of a motor command with less delay than sensors. These forward models receive efference copies of input motor commands being sent to the body and the resulting output sensory signals. Emulators are continually updating so as to give the most accurate anticipatory signal following motor inputs.
The corollary discharge theory (CD) of motion perception helps understand how the brain can detect motion through the visual system, even though the body is not moving. When a signal is sent from the motor cortex of the brain to the eye muscles, a copy of that signal is sent through the brain as well. The brain does this in order to distinguish real movements in the visual world from our own body and eye movement. The original signal and copy signal are then believed to be compared somewhere in the brain. Such a structure has not yet been identified, but it is believed to be the Medial Superior Temporal Area (MST). The original signal and copy need to be compared in order to determine if the change in vision was caused by eye movement or movement in the world. If the two signals cancel then no motion is perceived, but if they do not cancel then the residual signal is perceived as motion in the real world. Without a corollary discharge signal, the world would seem to spin around every time the eyes moved. It is important to note that corollary discharge and efference copy are sometimes used synonymously, they were originally coined for much different applications, with corollary discharge being used in a much broader sense.
Proprioception refers to the sensory information relayed from muscles, tendons, and skin that allows for the perception of the body in space. This feedback allows for more fine control of movement. In the brain, proprioceptive integration occurs in the somatosensory cortex, and motor commands are generated in the motor cortex. In the spinal cord, sensory and motor signals are integrated and modulated by motor neuron pools called central pattern generators (CPGs). At the base level, sensory input is relayed by muscle spindles in the muscle and Golgi tendon organs (GTOs) in tendons, alongside cutaneous sensors in the skin.
pp. 23–26 [Section Corollary Discharge], p. 33, pp. 297–299 [Section Control Systems for Saccade Generation]