Chapter 5

Motor Control Theories

Concept:
Theories about how we control
coordinated movement differ in terms
of the role of central and
environmental features of a control
system
Theory and Professional
Practice

 What is a theory?

 It helps us understand phenomena and

explains the reason why these phenomena
exist or behaves as they do.
Theory and Professional
Practice

 Stephen Hawking

 It must accurately describe a large class of

observations
 It must make definite predictions about the
results of future observations
Theory and Professional
Practice

 The relevance of Motor Control Theory for the

Practitioner

 Provides a base of support on which he or

she can develop effective skill instructions
and practice environments
Motor Control Theory
 Two essential issues important to a
theory of motor control

 Coordination
 Degrees of freedom problem
Motor Control Theory
 Motor Control Theories-behavioral

 Explain observed behavior without

attempting to specify neural-level features
of the control process

 Propose laws and principles that govern

coordinated human motor behavior
Coordination
 The patterning of head, body, and/or limb
motions relative to the patterning of
environmental objects and events.
Coordination
 There are two parts to the definition

 Patterns of head, body and limb

movements

 The organizational relationship of

movement characteristics of the head,
body, and limb involved in the
performance, regardless of the skill level of
the performer.
Coordination
 There are two parts to the definition

 Relative to the pattern of

environmental objects and events

 movement coordination in relation to the

context in which the skill is performed
Coordination
 Example..
 When walking, people must adapt their head,
body and limb movement patterns to the
characteristics of the pathway.
The Degrees of Freedom
 Nicolai Berstein
 Russian physiologist
 The nervous system had to solve what he
termed the “degrees of freedom problem.”
The Degrees of Freedom
 The number of independent elements of
components in a control system and the
number of ways each component can act

 Each element is “free” to vary in specific way

 Example: the elbow joint can flex and extend

The Degrees of Freedom
 Degrees of freedom problem

a control problem that occurs in the designing

of a complex system that must produce a
specific result; the design problem involves
determining how to constrain the system’s
many degrees of freedom so that it can
produce the specific result.
The Degrees of Freedom
 Example:
 Picking up a glass from a table
 How many joints are involved
shoulder 1
elbow 1
wrist 1
fingers (3 joints x 4) 12
thumb 3
The Degrees of Freedom

 It becomes evident that for any motor skill,

the control problem involved in enabling a
person to perform that skill is an enormous
one.
Open-Loop and Closed-Loop Control
Systems
 Open-loop control system

a control system in which all the

information needed to initiate and carry
out an action as planned is contained in
the initial instructions to the effectors
Open-Loop and Closed-Loop Control
Systems
 Closed-loop control system

a system of control in which during the

course of an action, feedback is
compared against a standard or
reference to enable an action to be
carried out as planned
Open-Loop and Closed-Loop Control
Systems
 Differences between the systems
 Feedback
information from the sensory system that
indicated the status of a movement to the
central nervous system; in a closed-loop
control system, feedback is used to make
corrections to an ongoing movement.
Open-Loop and Closed-Loop Control
Systems
 Difference between the systems
 Movement Instructions
 Instructions issued by the control center to the
effectors to carry out the planned movement.
 Open-loop-contain all the information necessary
 Closed-loop-the actual execution and completion
of the movement depend on feedback information
that reaches the control center.
Two Theories of Motor Control
 Motor Program-Based Theory
 Gives prominence to movement instructions
specified by the central nervous system

 Dynamic Pattern Theory

 Gives more influence to movement instructions
specified by the environment and to the dynamic
interaction this information with the body, limbs,
and nervous system.
Motor Program-Based Theory

 Motor program
 A memory representation that stores
information needed to perform an action
Motor Program-Based Theory
 Richard Schmidt proposed..
That a serious problem with previous
views was that they limited the motor
program to controlling specific movements
or sequence of movements
Motor Program-Based Theory
 Richard Schmidt
 Generalized motor program (GMP)
 The memory representation of a class of

actions that share common invariant

characteristics; it provides the basis for
controlling a specific action within the class
of actions
Motor Program-Based Theory
 Generalized motor program (GMP)
 Invariant features

the fundamental pattern of the class of action

and does not vary from one performance of the
action to another
 Parameters
features that can be varied from one
performance of a skill to another to meet the
specific movement demands of a situation
Motor Program-Based Theory
 Schmidt’s schema theory
 Schema

A rule of set of rules that serves to provide the

basis for a decision; in Schmidt’s schema
theory, an abstract representation of rules
governing movement
Motor Program-Based Theory
 Schmidt used the schema concept to describe
two control components involved in the
learning and control of skills
Motor Program-Based Theory
 First component…

 The generalized motor program is the control

mechanism responsible for controlling the
general characteristics of classes of action,
such as throwing, kicking, walking, and
running
Motor Program-Based Theory
 Second component…

 The motor response schema is responsible for

providing the specific rules governing an
action in a given situation. Thus, the motor
response schema provides parameters to the
generalized motor program.
Dynamic Pattern Theory

 An approach to describing and explaining the

control of coordinated movement that
emphasizes the role of information in the
environment and the dynamic properties of
the body and limbs; it is also known as the
dynamical systems theory
Dynamic Pattern Theory

 Sees human movement control as a complex

system that behaves in ways similar to those
of any complex biological or physical system

 Human motor control is seen from the

perspective of nonlinear dynamics
Dynamic Pattern Theory
 Stability
 A behavioral steady state of a system that

represents a preferred behavioral state and

incorporates the notion of invariance by
noting that a stable system will
spontaneously return to a stable state after
it is slightly perturbed
Dynamic Pattern Theory
 Attractors
 The stable behavioral steady states of

systems. In terms of human coordinated

movement, attractors characterize
preferred behavioral states, such as the in-
phase and antiphase states for rhythmic
bimanual finger movements.
Dynamic Pattern Theory
 Order Parameters
 Functionally specific variables that define

the overall behavior of a system; they

enable a coordinated pattern of movement
to be reproduced and distinguished from
other patterns; known also as collective
variables.
Dynamic Pattern Theory
 Control Parameters
 Coordinated movement control variables

(e.g., tempo, or speed, and force) that

freely change according to the
characteristics of an action situation.
Dynamic Pattern Theory
 Self-organization
 The emergence of specific stable pattern

of behavior due to certain conditions

characterizing a situation rather than to a
specific control mechanism organizing the
behavior
Dynamic Pattern Theory
 Coordinative structures
 Functionally specific collectives of muscles

and joints that are constrained by the

nervous system to act cooperatively to
produce an action.
Dynamic Pattern Theory
 Coordinative structures
 Intrinsic coordinative structures are

involved in actions such as walking,

running, and bimanual coordination.
 The muscles and joints of the limbs have a

natural tendency to demonstrate interlimb

coordination patterns that have
characterized our performance since early
in life.
Dynamic Pattern Theory
 Coordinative structures
 In contrast, coordinative structures

developed through practice become new

combinations of muscles and joints that act
together to produce a coordination pattern
that will allow the achievement of an action
goal.
Dynamic Pattern Theory
 Perception and action coupling
The spatial and temporal coordination of
vision and the hands or feet that enables
people to perform eye-hand and eye-foot
coordination skills.
The Present State of the Control
Theory Issue

 A theory of control cannot focus exclusively

on the movement information that is specified
by the central nervous system. Theorists
must take task and environmental
characteristics into account.
The Present State of the Control
Theory Issue

 Some researchers would prefer to see a

compromise between the two theories, which
would lead to the development of a hybrid
theory that incorporates the strengths of each
theory.
The Present State of the Control
Theory Issue

 Abenethy and Sparro speculated that a

compromise theory was unlikely because the
two theories represent two vastly different
approaches to explaining the control of
coordinated movement.
Questions…..