ABSTRACT
One of the foremost issues in motor control and memory research concerns the sources of information that contribute in the development of memory representation for movements. This somewhat diffuse literature focusing on the relative roles of peripheral and central information in movement coding is systematically reviewed. While most studies have examined the coding and retention characteristics of movement information in the proprioceptive modality, some recent experiments have explored the efferent dimension of movement reproduction. This latter work has led to the hypothesis that, when a subject is allowed to internally organize a response, there is an efference-based mechanism such as corollary discharge which operates to prepare sensory processing systems for the anticipated consequences of the motor act. Several experiments are presented which explore this hypothesis by forcing a reliance on distance cues, by manipulating the planning and efferent components of movement, and by maximizing the encoding of proprioceptive information. While it is realized that crucial experiments still need to be performed, the results are in general agreement with an efference-based mechanism. In all cases, prior response organization facilitated the reproduction of the motor act.
