ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses basic aspects of motor computation, along with some implications for philosophy of mind. Sensorimotor psychologists have explored various theoretical frameworks for explaining motor control. The most empirically successful is optimal feedback control (OFC). This framework uses optimal control theory, a mathematical approach to decision making that has been extensively developed in engineering and statistics. The central construct of optimal control theory is a cost function, which measures the desirability of issuing a motor command under the assumption that certain environmental conditions obtain. Scientific research mainly studies a specific type of motor learning called adaptation. During adaptation, the motor system corrects a disruption of some previously mastered activity. Sensorimotor psychologists have extensively investigated the subpersonal mental activity that underlies adaptation. A key finding is that adaptation, like motor control itself, involves sophisticated computations that draw upon available sensory information.
