Kirjahaku

Motor control is a relatively young field of research exploring how the nervous system produces purposeful, coordinated movements in its interaction with the body and the environment through conscious and unsconscious thought. Many books purporting to cover motor control have veered off course to examine biomechanics and physiology rather than actual control, leaving a gap in the literature. This book covers all the major perspectives in motor control, with a balanced approach. There are chapters explicitly dedicated to control theory, to dynamical systems, to biomechanics, to different behaviors, and to motor learning, including case studies.

Physics of Biological Action and Perception helps researchers interested in exploring biological motor control from a physics or alternative viewpoint perspective. The book introduces the idea of parametric control as a distinguishing feature of living systems. Sections cover how the CNS creates stable percepts based on fuzzy and continuously changing signals from numerous receptors and the variable processes related to ongoing actions. The author also develops the idea of control with referent coordinates to stability of salient variables in fields typically united under the label of "cognition." Examples of this include communication (how the gist of a message is preserved despite variability of phrases), thought processes (how one can solve a mental problem via different logical routes), and playing chess (how one selects an optimal move given a position on the board). The book is written for researchers, instructors, clinicians and other professionals in all the fields related to biological movement and perception.

Synergy dicusses a general problem in biology: the lack of an adequate language for formulating biologically specific problems. It describes the recent progress in the control and coordination of human movement. The book begins with a brief history of movement studies and reviews the current central controversies in the area of control of movements with an emphasis on the equilibrium-point hypothesis. An operational definition of synergy is introduced and a method of analysis of synergies is described based on the uncontrolled manifold hypothesis. Further this method is used to characterize synergies in a variety of tasks including such common motor tasks as standing, pointing, reaching, standing-up, and manipulation of hand-held objects. Applications of this method to movements by persons with neurological disorders, persons with atypical development and healthy elderly persons are illustrated, as well as changes in motor synergies with practice. Possible neurophysiological mechanisms of synergies are also discussed with the focus on such conspicuous structures as the spinal cord, the cerebellum, the basal ganglia, and the cortex of the large hemispheres. A variety of models are discussed based on different computational and neurophysiological principles. Possible applications of the introduced definition of synergies to other areas such as perception and language are discussed.

Mark L. Latash approaches motor control as a biological discipline that requires the language of laws of nature, sets of adequate concepts specific for biological movement, and exploration using the scientific method developed in natural science. Seminars in Motor Control introduces and develops the theory of the parametric control of movement with spatial referent coordinates - a generalization of the equilibrium-point hypothesis - which is naturally compatible with the principle of abundance and the uncontrolled manifold hypothesis. The chapters discuss potential neurophysiological mechanisms involved in ensuring stability of functional movements and the relations among movement stability, agility, and optimality. The author addresses issues such as posture-movement paradox, equifinality and its violations, motor equivalence, muscle coactivation, multi-muscle and intra-muscle synergies, unintentional drifts in performance, kinesthetic perception, changes in movements with fatigue, aging, motor learning, neurological disorders, and rehabilitation. Consisting of five parts, Seminars in Motor Control examines current research in a clear and accessible style, ideal for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty in such departments as kinesiology, neuroscience, physiology, psychology, and physical therapy.