MOTOR CONTROL

Catalog description

Analysis of the mechanisms underlying the neural control and coordination of voluntary movements. Within this course, the students will get an in-depth knowledge of the mechanisms underlying the neural control and coordination of voluntary movements. The course will include content on the history of movement studies, classical research, and main current theories in the field of motor control. These will include theories based on ideas of motor programming and internal models, control with muscle activation patterns, equilibrium-point control, optimization, dynamic systems, and theory of synergies. The neural control of several everyday motor behaviors will be discussed such as vertical posture, locomotion, reaching, and prehension. Speed-accuracy and speed-difficulty trade-offs and changes in motor control and coordination with practice will be described emphasizing plasticity within the central nervous system. Changes in motor control with healthy aging and fatigue will be discussed. In addition, changes in motor control and coordination will be discussed based on the reviewed theories. The role of specific structures within the central nervous system in motor control will be reviewed with an emphasis on movement disorders associated with dysfunctions of specific structures such as spinal cord injury, stroke, disorders of the basal ganglia and of the cerebellum.