A Cortico-Spinal Model of Reaching and Proprioception Under Multiple Task Constraints

A model of cortico-spinal trajectory generation for voluntary reaching movements is developed to functionally interpret a broad range of behavioral, physiological and anatomical data. The model simulates how arm movements achieve their remarkable efficiency and accuracy in response to widely varying positional, speed and force constraints. A key issue in arm movement control is how the brain copes with such a wide range of movement contexts. The model suggests how the brain may set automatic and volitional gating mechanisms to vary the balance of static and dynamic feedback information to guide the movement command and to compensate for external forces. For example, with increasing movement speed, the system shifts from a feedback position controller to a feedforward trajectory generator with superimposed dynamics compensation. Simulations of the model illustrate how it reproduces the effects of elastic loads on fast movements, endpoint errors in Coriolis fields, and several effects of muscle tendon vibration, including tonic and antagonist vibration reflexes, position and movement illusions, effects of obstructing the tonic vibration reflex, and reaching undershoots caused by antagonist vibration