Brain mechanisms for interleaving routine and creative action

摘要

We argue that frontal areas select and control routine action which originates in the basal ganglia, providing detailed interleaving with the creative knowledge elaboration activity of the cortex. The basal ganglia form loops and learn associations from various source areas to target areas of the cortex. We relate these connections to the cortical perception-action hierarchy. We outline examples of routinization and interleaving for the Tower of Hanoi problem, for routinization of motor control, of problem solving action, and of eye movement. We suggest a role for the ventral group of thalamic nuclei in controlling the flow of routine action.