ABSTRACT
Historically, neuropsychological models of action have focused largely upon memorial gesture representations associated with skilled actions. In recent years, evidence from physiological animal studies, cognitive psychology, and cognitive neuropsychology have contributed to a spatiomotor model of the action system which recognizes the importance of "on-line" dynamic coding procedures in skilled action as well as in motor mental imagery, recognition of gesture, body part identification, spatial attention, and object selection. The system includes a dynamic representation of the body forming the basis for the calculation of numerous frames of reference centered upon the body parts involved in a given action. These body-centered spatial reference frames participate in spatiomotor coding of the locations of body parts with respect to one another, and with respect to external objects in the environment. Finally, the system is flexible, permitting alternative reference frames to substitute for or augment damaged spatiamotor coding processes.
