Diversity Deconstrains Component Limitations in Sensorimotor Control

Abstract

Human sensorimotor control is remarkably fast and accurate at the system level despite severe speed-accuracy trade-offs at the component level. The discrepancy between the contrasting speed-accuracy trade-offs at these two levels is a paradox. Meanwhile, speed accuracy trade-offs, heterogeneity, and layered architectures are ubiquitous in nerves, skeletons, and muscles, but they have only been studied in isolation using domain-specific models. In this article, we develop a mechanistic model for how component speed-accuracy trade-offs constrain sensorimotor control that is consistent with Fitts’ law for reaching. The model suggests that diversity among components deconstrains the limitations of individual components in sensorimotor control. Such diversity-enabled sweet spots (DESSs) are ubiquitous in nature, explaining why large heterogeneities exist in the components of biological systems and how natural selection routinely evolves systems with fast and accurate responses using imperfect components.