Physics Of Biological Action And Perception

Physics of Biological Action and Perception helps researchers interested in exploring biological motor control from a physics or alternative viewpoint perspective. The book introduces the idea of parametric control as a distinguishing feature of living systems. Sections cover how the CNS creates stable percepts based on fuzzy and continuously changing signals from numerous receptors and the variable processes related to ongoing actions. The author also develops the idea of control with referent coordinates to stability of salient variables in fields typically united under the label of "cognition." Examples of this include communication (how the gist of a message is preserved despite variability of phrases), thought processes (how one can solve a mental problem via different logical routes), and playing chess (how one selects an optimal move given a position on the board). The book is written for researchers, instructors, clinicians and other professionals in all the fields related to biological movement and perception. Presents a unifying theory of motor control based on physics Encompasses action, perception and cognition Discusses referent coordinates, kinesthetic perception and stability of actions Identifies the importance of the CNS over computational brain function

Approx.242 pages Translates the principles of motor control to improve sensorimotor outcomes in patients Reviews coordination topics including locomotor coordination, visual perception and head stability Explores movement analysis knowledge in rehabilitative tools

Brings together cutting edge experiments and theoretical treatments regarding space, time and motion in visual neuroscience and psychophysics.

Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bernstein was one of the great neuroscientists of the twentieth century and highly respected by Western scientists even though most have never read his most important book entitled On the Construction of Movements. Bernstein's Construction of Movements: The Original Text and Commentaries is the first English translation. It supplements the translated text with a series of commentaries by scientists who knew Bernstein personally, as well as leaders in related fields including physics, motor control, and biomechanics. While written in 1947, Bernstein’s book is anything but obsolete, making this English translation and accompanying commentaries an invaluable text. The translated original text presents in detail Bernstein’s views on the evolutionary history of biological movement and his multi-level hierarchical scheme of the construction of movements in higher animals, including humans. The following commentaries address Bernstein’s personality, the history of the book, and current views on different aspects of neuroscience covered in Bernstein’s text. Ultimately, they present "a book within the book" to showcase how Bernstein’s heritage has developed over the past years. This classic, available for the first time to an English-speaking audience, will prove beneficial to students, instructors, and experts of neuroscience, physics, neurophysiology, motor control, motor rehabilitation, biomechanics, dynamical systems, and related fields.

This book presents studies of self-motion by an international group of basic and applied researchers including biologists, psychologists, comparative physiologists, kinesiologists, aerospace and control engineers, physicians, and physicists. Academia is well represented and accounts for most of the applied research offered. Basic theoretical research is further represented by private research companies and also by government laboratories on both sides of the Atlantic. Researchers and students of biology, psychology, physiology, kinesiology, engineering, and physics who have an interest in self-motion -- whether it be underwater, in space, or on solid ground -- will find this volume of interest. This book presents studies of self-motion by an international group of basic and applied researchers including biologists, psychologists, comparative physiologists, kinesiologists, aerospace and control engineers, physicians, and physicists. Academia is well represented and accounts for most of the applied research offered. Basic theoretical research is further represented by private research companies and also by government laboratories on both sides of the Atlantic. Researchers and students of biology, psychology, physiology, kinesiology, engineering, and physics who have an interest in self-motion -- whether it be underwater, in space, or on solid ground -- will find this volume of interest.

The study of motor control is evolving into a field of natural science comparable in its rigor and exactness to established fields such as classical physics. This advancement necessitates a resource that offers more precise terminology and rigorous logics. Neurophysiological Basis of Motor Control, Third Edition, rises to the challenge by building on its foundation with thoroughly updated information, expanded content, and an organizational overhaul. By emphasizing the neurophysiological mechanisms involved in the processes of generating voluntary movements, the text offers a distinct understanding of how the brain generates control signals and how the body executes them. Author Mark Latash, PhD—founding editor of the journal Motor Control and past president of the International Society of Motor Control (ISMC)—combines his expertise with the experience of new coauthor Tarkeshwar Singh, PhD, director of the Sensorimotor Neuroscience and Learning Laboratory at Penn State University. In the third edition of this book, previously titled Neurophysiological Basis of Movement, the authors present the following: New chapters on motor learning and sensorimotor integration Expanded sections dedicated to the role of different sensory modalities in motor control, kinesthetic perception, and action–perception interactions An exploration of the basis of neuroanatomy, aging and development, motor disorders, and basic concepts such as coordination, reflexes, voluntary movement, sensation, and perception Supported with hundreds of illustrations and chapter introductions that provide smooth transitions from one topic to the next, the third edition also incorporates thought-provoking problems that encourage students to think critically and become aware of the types of motor control issues that have yet to be studied or solved. At the end of each section, additional problems are offered in short essay and multiple-choice formats as a means of self-testing. Other supplemental learning aids include chapter summaries as well as key terms and topics. Neurophysiological Basis of Motor Control, Third Edition, deepens students’ knowledge of the link between the brain and movement with basic facts about neural motor control, neuroanatomy, and movement disorders. The text will help usher in a new era in the study of motor control, promoting independent thinking and sharing thought-provoking ideas on current theories of motor control and coordination.

The interdisciplinary approach so popular today is more than a matter of fashion. It is, in fact, a reflection of the recognition that a good many areas once considered ade quately treated by one or the other of the traditional disciplines straddle the boundaries of several. Interdisciplinary research then is, by definition, a coop erative venture by several autonomous branches of science into areas incompletely accessible to anyone of them. By stimulating cooperation among several related disciplines, such research may serve to enrich each of them; but, on the other hand, the existence of these border areas occa sionally serves as Ii, pretext for postponing the solution of seemingly insurmountable problems. Brain research seems to have become such a border area of science. The fortress of classical psychology is being assaulted before our very eyes, its peripheral and even its more integral areas being invaded by physiology, morphol ogy, physics, and chemistry. Neurophysiology, too, has ceased to be an autonomous and self-governing field, and has come increasingly to rely on the help proffered by gen eral psychology, epistemology, and logic, as well as exact sciences such as mathematics and physics. These border assaults have undoubtedly been beneficial for all involved. 9 Within the traditional boundaries of their stuffy principles most classical disciplines are today facing a methodological and epistemological crisis. The breaching of their walls may at least hold out some hope of a renaissance.

Presents original contributions from cognitive neuroscientists and cognitive neuropsychologists who address this area from different complementary perspectives.