From sensing to acting: sensorimotor transformations for goal-directed movement

Every reach, grasp, or step we take depends on a conversion of sensory information into motor commands. The brain must continuously integrate visual, proprioceptive, vestibular, and tactile signals, weigh their reliability, and transform them into coordinated action, often under time pressure, uncertainty, and changing task demands. Understanding how the nervous system performs these sensorimotor transformations is a central question in neuroscience, with implications ranging from basic motor control theory to rehabilitation after injury or disease and the design of assistive and prosthetic technologies. Despite decades of research, key questions remain about how sensory evidence is weighted, how internal models are updated, and how cognitive processes shape the sensorimotor pathway from perception to action.This Research Topic aims to bring together current experimental, computational, and clinical work on the neural and behavioral mechanisms underlying the transformation of sensory input into goal-directed movement. We welcome contributions spanning healthy motor control, aging, and movement disorders, as well as studies using neuroimaging, electrophysiology, and computational modeling.A further dimension of this collection concerns the role of cognition in shaping sensorimotor transformations. Goal-directed movement rarely occurs in isolation from higher-order cognitive processes: attention selects and prioritizes the sensory information that guides action, while executive control shapes how and when motor plans are triggered, adjusted, or inhibited. We therefore also welcome contributions examining the interaction between attentional control and motor execution, including how shifts in spatial or feature-based attention modulate sensorimotor gain, how divided attention affects movement accuracy and timing, and how attentional deficits contribute to impaired action control in clinical populations.Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: • Neural mechanisms of sensory integration and multisensory weighting during movement planning and execution• Computational and predictive models of sensorimotor transformation (e.g., internal models, optimal control, Bayesian frameworks)• Adaptation and learning in sensorimotor systems, including motor adaptation, skill acquisition, and plasticity• Sensorimotor deficits and compensatory strategies in neurological and motor disorders• Methodological and technological advances for probing sensorimotor pathways (e.g., neuroimaging, electrophysiology, motion capture, virtual reality)•Behavioral analysis of attention allocation in dual-task environments• Role of cognitive processes on sensorimotor transformations • Interlimb differences in utilizing sensory feedback for goal-direction movement Topic editors: Shanie Amanda Liyanagamage Jayasinghe, Yoichiro Sato Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/85108/from-sensing-to-acting-sensorimotor-transformations-for-goal-directed-movement