A computational model of reach decisions in the primate cerebral cortex

Neurophysiological evidence suggests that visually-guided reaching movements are produced through "specification" and "selection" processes that overlap both temporally and anatomically [1]. Here, I present a formal computational model which demonstrates how partial specification of several potential movement directions, and the selection of the correct movement, can occur in populations of directionally tuned cells in a distributed cortical network including posterior parietal, premotor, prefrontal, and primary motor cortex. The model reproduces a large set of neurophysiological and psychophysical phenomena, including the behavior of cortical cells during a reach decision task and the spatial and temporal statistics of human reaching choices.