What is optimal about motor control?

Abstract

This article poses a controversial question: is optimal control theory useful for understanding motor behavior or is it a misdirection? This question is becoming acute as people start to conflate internal models in motor control and perception (Poeppel et al., 2008; Hickok et al., 2011). However, the forward models in motor control are not the generative models used in perceptual inference. This Perspective tries to highlight the differences between internal models in motor control and perception and asks whether optimal control is the right way to think about things. The issues considered here may have broader implications for optimal decision theory and Bayesian approaches to learning and behavior in general.