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Abstract:
Despite the high degree of redundancy that the human motor
system possesses for any specific act, arm movements tend to by
stereotypical and display characteristic patterns in their
trajectories, the torques at the joints and in the EMG patterns
in the various muscles. The relationship between the torques and
the kinematics is described by physics but the relationship
between these properties and the activation of the muscles that
produce both is complex and far from well understood. In this
talk I will discuss some of the motor control theories that help
us understand why we perform our movements in the way we do and
how the central nervous system activates the muscles towards
those ends. I will argue that in spite of the well known
regularities that are found in simple movement kinematics, an
understanding of how muscles are activated will emerge from
studying the regularities of the joint torques. It is from the
study of joint torque that we can begin to infer how the CNS
activates the muscles and through them it acts to achieve its
goals.
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