The Neuroscience Of Human Movement

Covering the basics of neuroscience, including a chapter on the vocabulary of the nervous system (a great brush-up even for those who have some prior knowledge of neuroscience), this excellent reference eases the student through more difficult topics such as reflexes, eye-hand coordination, and neural control of running and walking. Each chapter begins with an outline, and a comprehensive glossary rounds out the book. More than 50 original line drawings illustrate key concepts. * Presents difficult information on neuroscience in an easy-to-understand manner. * Explains the major organizational subdivisions of the central nervous system briefly, with an emphasis on structures and structural relationships that impact motor control. * Presents typical spinal cord and brainstem reflexes involved in motor control and discusses the methods for using these reflexes to influence strength gains and muscle flexibility. * Includes the most current research on the neural control of hand-eye coordination, discussed in relation to its importance to rehabilitation medicine and childrens' physical education. * Chapter on the neural control of human locomotion integrates concepts in previous chapters to show the harmony of neural interaction that is needed to complete any motor act. * Includes the latest research (by the author) showing that humans can consciously alter reflex activity and the impact of these findings on athletic performance, recovery from injury, and motor learning. * Concepts are illustrated with anecdotes and examples making difficult information less intimidating and easier to grasp. * Includes topics like hand-eye coordination and human locomotion, applying neuroscience to everyday activities and making highly theoretical information useful. * More than 50 original line drawings illustrate key concepts. * Chapter outlines give students an overview of the information to be presented. * Comprehensive glossary provides an easy review of difficult terminology.

Neuromechanics of Human Movement, Fourth Edition, provides a scientific foundation to the study of human movement by exploring how the nervous system controls the actions of muscles to produce human motion in relation to biomechanical principles.

With eight new chapters and 130 pages of fresh material, this second edition covers a wide range of topics, including movement disorders and current theories of motor control and co-ordination.

The Psychology of Human Movement is a collection of papers dealing with experimental work involving psychology, kinesiology, physical education, and neurophysiology. These papers have as their central theme, the higher order, organizational processes contributing to coordinated goal-directed movement. These papers discuss theories in motor neurophysiology, voluntary control of simple aim movements, memory for movement, perception and action, sequencing of movements, and the demands made by movement on information-processing resources. Other papers deal with the changes that result from the organization and execution of movement in training, physical development, or damage occurring in the central nervous system. The latter papers give weight to the hypothesis that any studies in movement, action, and skill should cover a wider range of data, and not only from studies of "normal" adult subjects. One paper explains skills acquisition in terms of the changes in the way the nervous system is organized, the changes due to practice, to interactions with the environment, and to the development of the cognitive system of the individual. Another paper notes that movement is the result of the operation of a set of underlying processes where each process has its own distinct function. This collection can be useful for undergraduate physical education or physical therapy students, and those studying psychology in areas of motor behavior and human movement.

For use either as a reference or as a text for graduate students, presents an approach to motor control studies based upon control of the equilibrium states on the neuromotor system an approach that originates from the classic works by Nicholai Bernstein and intensively developed during the last three decades. A strong back ground in physiology, physics, mathematics, and control theory is desirable.

Focuses on the examination of forces that create entire body motion, and develops the biomechanical knowledge of the reader.

The Central Nervous System plays a crucial role in movement control. Although many gaps still remain in our knowledge of the mechanisms in action, a large body of research on this topic is available nowadays. This book aims at an interdisciplinary approach to movement control, by discussing and relating neural aspects of human movement. In the first chapters of this book a review will be given of the complex neuroanatomy and the functional organisation of movement on the level of motoneurons, whereas the second part of the book considers neural network modeling and new methods of research on the functioning of the brain. The contributions in this book reflect in an extended form the presentations given at the symposium Neural Aspects of Human Movement, at the Faculty of Human Movement Sciences of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, May 22, 1992.