The CNS updates its context estimate in the absence of feedback

Human motor behaviour is remarkably accurate and appropriate even though ou r bodies and the objects we interact with change over time. To achieve such performance the motor system has to tailor the motor commands to the curre nt context, that is the properties of objects in the world and the prevaili ng environmental conditions. The current context can be estimated by integr ating two sources of information, sensory feedback and knowledge about how the context is likely to have changed from the previous estimate. Here we s how that in the absence of sensory feedback about the context the second pr ocess is able to extrapolate the likely evolution of the context without re quiring awareness that the context is changing. NeuroReport 11:3783-3786 (C ) 2000 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.