F.A. Mussa-Ivaldi and S.A. Solla
IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, Vol. 29, No. 3: 640-650 (2004)
The neural control of movement requires the ability to deal
with changes, both in the environment and in the parameters that characterize
the mechanical structure of the organism. Here we discuss the three types of
coordinate representations that sensory and motor systems use to generate and
control movements, and argue that the intrinsic redundancy of the musculoeskeletal system can be exploited to implement
control signals that result in successful task completion while allowing for
variance in trajectory parameters not relevant to the task. We also argue that
muscle synergies activated through the stimulation of specific loci along the
spinal cord provide evidence for the existence of a vocabulary of motor
primitives that can be combined, either simultaneously or sequentially, to
generate a broad repertoire of complex movements.
© 2004 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted.
However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or
promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or
redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of
this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.