Meeting Abstract
We reframe classic views of sensory-motor integration in a communication context within an emerging framework in which target selection and action selection emerge from recursive neural circuits within signal receivers. Nonlinear neurophysiological responses to complex signals define the current set of potential sensory targets, i.e., traits of signalers (target selection). As targets are refined, possible motor responses to those targets are narrowed to a single coherent action (action selection). The immediate context in which an individual perceives the signal, developmental experience of the individual, and evolution of signal receivers all predispose the sensory-motor circuits toward specific targets and action towards those perceived targets. We propose that synergism or interactions among complex signal components at the behavioral level arises from either the combinatory interactions between target-action links with respect to different signal components, or to the hierarchical modulation of target selection, action selection, or learning in which a subset of signal components influence the action response to other signals.
