# Powers' Model of a PCT-Based Research Program

**URL:** <http://discourse.iapct.org/t/powers-model-of-a-pct-based-research-program/15574>\
**Category:** Phenomena\
**Created:** [April 17, 2020, 1:23am UTC](http://discourse.iapct.org/t/powers-model-of-a-pct-based-research-program/15574 "2020-04-17T01:23:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 32

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**Author:** ![bnhpct](http://discourse.iapct.org/user_avatar/discourse.iapct.org/bnhpct/32/34_2.png) [@bnhpct](http://discourse.iapct.org/u/bnhpct)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2020, 11:10pm UTC](http://discourse.iapct.org/t/powers-model-of-a-pct-based-research-program/15574/32 "2020-10-20T23:10:42Z")

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> [@rsmarken](#):
>
> I think the main problem with your interpretation is your idea that there is a part of the brain – the P[osterior] C[erebellum] – that is dedicated to controlling in imagination.

I do not say that **all** imagination occurs there. I said that the abstract imagery subjectively experienced during mental manipulation of concepts is analogous to the control of relationships and transitions of configurations by motor control because the same kinds of cerebellar structures are involved. There are certainly many forms of imagination other than the mental manipulation of concepts. Among them, of course, is imagined control by functions in the A[nterior] C[erebellum] of configurations perceived to be present as objects in the environment or remembered or imagined so.

A second problem with your oversimplification to a straw man is that control of transitions (including events) and relationships of configurations in imagination can extend down the hierarchy to imagined control of sensations and intensities in vivid imagination.

> [@rsmarken](#):
>
> So why does it look like some cognitive functions are located in the PC? I believe it’s because the PC is involved in the control of perceptions that are often considered cognitions: the perceptual variables described in the Higher Levels chapter of B:CP. These “cognitive” perceptions are perceptions that seem to exist in our head rather than in the world outside.

Yes. That **is** what I’m talking about. And those perceptions exist “in the head” rather than in the world because they are grounded in imagined control at lower levels rather than being grounded in input from the environment.

> [@rsmarken](#):
>
> the PC grows quickly once a child is able to control perceptions at all levels [,] the least likely interpretation is that this happens because the PC is involved in making control at all levels more effective by allowing trial and error testing and planning in imagination. A more plausible explanation …[:] the PC is involved in controlling higher level perceptions than those controlled by the AC. The […] type of perceptions controlled by the PC are needed by the higher level (cortical) systems controlling perceptions of programs, principles and system concepts.

Yes indeed. That’s what **commands** the trial-and-error testing by sending reference signals for relationships and transitions among configurations, and that’s what receives perceptual input resulting from those imagined control processes below them in the hierarchy.

> [@rsmarken](#):
>
> You seem to be quite an expert on the cerebellar research, both AC and PC, so it should be easier for you to get this information than it would be for me.

Did you intend that to be sarcastic? I’m asking because it seems so to me, and I don’t want to make assumptions.

Piqued by what Frans has told me, and its relevance to my field of linguistics, I put a few hours into an unprofessional search of the literature about the cerebellum. My field is linguistics. I don’t have the resources to find out what tasks can be performed by people with different kinds of cerebellar strokes. Nor if I did do I have the time free from grant and other obligations, which is a reason for the long delay responding. But it’s a good suggestion.

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