Marta Russo , Antonella Maselli , Dagmar Sternad , Giovanni Pezzulo
{"title":"Predictive strategies for the control of complex motor skills: recent insights into individual and joint actions","authors":"Marta Russo , Antonella Maselli , Dagmar Sternad , Giovanni Pezzulo","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101519","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101519","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Humans perform exquisite sensorimotor skills, both individually and in teams, from athletes performing rhythmic gymnastics to everyday tasks like carrying a cup of coffee. The ‘predictive brain’ framework suggests that mastering these skills relies on predictive mechanisms, raising the question of how we deploy predictions for real-time control and coordination. This review highlights two research lines, showing that during the control of complex objects, people make the interaction with ‘tools’ predictable, and that, during dyadic coordination, people make their behavior predictable and legible for their partners. These studies demonstrate that to achieve sophisticated motor skills, we play ‘prediction tricks’: we select subspaces of predictable solutions and make sensorimotor interactions more predictable and legible by and for others. This synthesis underscores the critical role of predictability in optimizing control strategies across contexts. Furthermore, it emphasizes the need for novel studies on the scope and limits of predictive mechanisms in motor control.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"63 ","pages":"Article 101519"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143760926","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Evolution of neural circuits in the origin of behavioral novelty","authors":"Yun Ding","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101520","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101520","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The origin of phenotypic novelty is a central topic in evolutionary biology. In this review, I will discuss the neural circuit basis that underlies the emergence of behavioral novelties, emphasizing novel behaviors as evolutionary additions to existing behavioral repertoires and the circuit mechanisms crucial to their initial emergence, rather than their later refinement. I will describe two nonmutually exclusive mechanisms as possible common neural routes to behavioral novelty. First, existing motor modules can be redeployed for use in novel sensory-social contexts through transitions at circuit nodes linking decision-making and motor programs. Second, novel behavioral patterns can be encoded by the actualization of latent potentials in ancestral circuits. Together, these mechanisms suggest that nervous systems develop with remarkable potential to readily evolve new behaviors.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"63 ","pages":"Article 101520"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143760925","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Behavioral illusions as obstacles to a science of purpose and how to get around them","authors":"Richard S Marken","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101507","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101507","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This review describes what a behavioral illusion is, why it has been an obstacle to research aimed at determining the purposes of behavior and suggests a way to get around these obstacles in order to start doing research aimed at understanding the purposes rather than the causes of behavior. A behavioral illusion happens when the behavior of a purposeful (closed loop, negative feedback) system is seen as that of a nonpurposeful (open loop) one. It is an obstacle to studying purposeful behavior because the results of research using conventional methods look like they were produced by a nonpurposeful system even if they were produced by a purposeful one. This obstacle can be overcome by using the results of conventional research as hints about the variables controlled by the systems under study.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"63 ","pages":"Article 101507"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143726081","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Measurement approaches in climate action research","authors":"Florian Lange","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101510","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101510","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Behavioral scientists across disciplines study the determinants of climate actions. They aim to describe, predict, explain, and change the behavioral properties (e.g. frequency, intensity, duration) of everyday resource consumption, climate-relevant investment decisions, or environmental activism behaviors. Accurate measurement of such properties is a critical prerequisite for a reliable science of climate actions. The present article reviews current measurement approaches while pointing to potential accuracy issues and ways to mitigate them. It illustrates the usefulness of observation-based measurement and argues that when relying on self-reports, researchers should take measures to ensure that participants’ self-observations can be accurate. In addition, behavioral paradigms are discussed as a means to study general principles underlying climate actions under experimentally controlled conditions. The review further distinguishes between the observation-based measurement of behavioral properties and the psychometric measurement of person properties and provides recommendations for the selection of measurement approaches contingent on researchers’ goals and interests.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"63 ","pages":"Article 101510"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143697889","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The social foundations of collective climate action","authors":"Nathaniel Geiger , John Fraser","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101506","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101506","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This interdisciplinary review explores intragroup and interpersonal precursors to collective climate action. First, we highlight structural perspectives into collective action, noting that efforts are moving beyond individual-level scientific literacy and instead situating climate literacy at the community level (i.e. community-based climate literacy). We highlight perspectives in community-based scientific literacy that conceptualize literacy as distributed throughout a group rather than solely held within individuals, and, grounded in theory on community-based climate literacy, we examine structural perspectives into how collective action can diffuse through social networks and into new communities. Next, we explore the social psychological literature on motivators of collective climate action, highlighting four interrelated intergroup and intrapersonal factors that recent research increasingly suggests are key to fostering collective action: (a) group identification, (b) empowerment to act, (c) social norms and influence, and (d) conversations. Collectively, this synthesis of recent research insights suggests promise for understanding and promoting collective climate action.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"63 ","pages":"Article 101506"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143682052","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Optimizing self-motion perception: a control theory perspective on vestibular–visual integration and adaptive mechanisms","authors":"Fu Zeng , Rong Wang , Aihua Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101511","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101511","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Self-motion perception, the ability to sense and interpret one’s own movement through space, plays a critical role in navigation, balance, and spatial orientation. This review examines how control theory offers a structured framework to analyze and optimize this perceptual process, focusing on the interactions between the vestibular and visual systems. By applying control theory concepts such as feedback loops, adaptive mechanisms, and sensory integration, we gain a deeper understanding of how the brain resolves conflicts between sensory inputs and recalibrates them to maintain stability. Recent findings highlight cortical processing areas that optimize sensory integration and recalibration, allowing for robust and accurate motion perception. This review synthesizes contemporary research from neuroscience, psychology, and engineering to present a cohesive perspective on enhancing self-motion perception, with implications for both theoretical understanding and practical applications in fields such as virtual reality and robotics.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"63 ","pages":"Article 101511"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143681608","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Benedetta Cecconi , Vincent Bonhomme , Steven Laureys , Olivia Gosseries , Melanie Boly , Jitka Annen
{"title":"Experimental approaches to study sensory disconnection in humans during sleep and anesthesia","authors":"Benedetta Cecconi , Vincent Bonhomme , Steven Laureys , Olivia Gosseries , Melanie Boly , Jitka Annen","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101505","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101505","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We discuss evidence from anesthesia, sleep, and mind-wandering studies, demonstrating the frequent detachment of consciousness from external sensory inputs, resulting in states of sensory disconnection. The challenge of behaviorally distinguishing between conscious states with sensory perception (connected consciousness [CC]) and those without it (disconnected consciousness [DC]) is examined in light of current methods for assessing consciousness. We evaluate the effectiveness of objective measures and behavioral responsiveness versus subjective measures in differentiating between CC and DC states during sleep and anesthesia. We conclude that the most effective approach to study sensory disconnection in these states is to serially awaken participants during the same sleep stage or at similar anesthetic concentrations after sensory stimulation, while neuroimaging data is recorded. Upon awakening, subjective reports on consciousness and sensory perception are collected to identify CC and DC states. This methodology allows for a within-state examination of the neural signatures of sensory disconnection, minimizing biases from between-state comparisons.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"63 ","pages":"Article 101505"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143681606","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Priors and proprioceptive predictions","authors":"Thomas Parr , Maxwell JD Ramstead , Karl Friston","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101509","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101509","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This review presents an approach to motor control inspired by the Equilibrium Point Hypothesis. The core idea is that, to realise a motor plan, one need only anticipate the proprioceptive consequences of that plan. Movement can then be executed through spinal and brainstem reflex arcs that correct for any deviations from these proprioceptive predictions. Seen in this light, motor commands are proprioceptive predictions. From a control-theoretic perspective, this implies that reflexes can be cast as closed feedback loops, the set points of which are determined by proprioceptive predictions. In what follows, we consider the key elements — in terms of active inference — that generate proprioceptive predictions. These include prior beliefs about motor trajectories, their temporal (autocorrelation) structure, and the confidence with which their sensory consequences can be predicted. For each element, we briefly review the neurobiology of the structures that might support the underlying computations. In short, we will see how corticospinal, cerebellar, and extrapyramidal systems might contribute to the prediction and realisation of a motor plan.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"63 ","pages":"Article 101509"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143681607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The brain that controls itself","authors":"Eli J Müller , Brandon R Munn , James M Shine","doi":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101499","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cobeha.2025.101499","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The brain is a complex adaptive system that is organized across broad spatiotemporal scales. This multiscale architecture poses unique computational challenges, as the brain must balance the segregation of specialized functions with their cooperative integration into broader cognitive processes, while also simultaneously remaining both stable yet flexible enough to robustly rapidly adapt to new challenges. Systems poised near critical points reflect this same trade-off, however they are typically coordinated by external control parameters. Here, we argue that diffuse projections from the subcortex act as intrinsic control parameters that allow the brain to control its own coherence and flexibility. We review biophysical computational models that demonstrate how diffuse projections enforce low-dimensional neural dynamics promoting system-wide coherence while maintaining a susceptibility to external changes. The findings suggest that these systems underlie the brain’s capacity for complex, adaptive behavior, providing a foundation for exploring how diffuse projections influence higher-level cognitive processes and consciousness.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":56191,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences","volume":"63 ","pages":"Article 101499"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143601784","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}