Linear Synergies as a Principle in Motor Control

Abstract

This chapter presents the results from a simulation model that investigates a principle in motor control called ‘motor synergy’. The term had been invented by the Russian physiologist and biologistNicholai Bernstein (Bernstein, 1967) for systematicities between motion signals to control different effectors during one action. He proposes such systematicities as a principle that helps the nervous system to deal with redundancy in motor space. The modelling work here is directly inspired by experimental physiological work conducted by Gottlieb et al. in Boston and Indiana (Gottlieb et al., 1997; Zaal et al., 1999) on motor synergies in human target reaching. The results in this chapter have been published in (Rohde and Di Paolo, 2005). Other than the models presented later in this book (chapters 6 and 7 on perceptual crossing and chapters 8-11 on simultaneity perception), the model presented in this chapter is a strong abstraction from and idealisation of the original experiment conducted. However, in comparison to the more conceptual or philosophical model on value system architectures in the following chapter, the modelling approach taken in this chapter is still much more immediately applicable to scientific practice. The model presented in this chapter serves as an example of how simulation models can resonate with experimental research in the cognitive or behavioural sciences, with results that are meant to guide, inform and complement experimental work.