Abstract
In this chapter, I will introduce the basic neurophysiological rule (BNR) to extend the explanation of the physiological origin of referent variables R, λ, and C already described for the single joint level to more global forms of referent control. These forms can be used to guide multi-muscle and multi-joint actions. One such a form—the referent arm configuration—has already been introduced in Chap. 3 to suggest that all muscles of the arm are controlled as a coherent unit. This notion is generalized to all muscles of the body by defining the referent body configuration. The introduction of this form of referent control further emphasizes that neural control levels are released from the necessity to decide which and how muscles should be activated to perform a motor action. Since the time when the concept of referent body configuration has been introduced (Feldman and Levin 1995; Feldman et al. 1998a; Lestienne et al. 2000) it has been tested and successfully applied to several human actions, including reaching, locomotion, jumping, sit-to-stand movements, dancing, and hammering in humans, and to head movements in monkeys.
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5.1 Electronic Supplementary Material
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Movements from sitting to full position are shown. Blue and green figures show the referent and emergent actual body configurations, respectively. Animations are reproduced with permission from Feldman et al. (2007). Copyright 2007 Elsevier Science (AVI 866 kb)
Animation 5.2
Movements from sitting to semi-standing position are shown. Blue and green figures show the referent and emergent actual body configurations, respectively. Animations are reproduced with permission from Feldman et al. (2007). Copyright 2007 Elsevier Science (AVI 976 kb)
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Feldman, A.G. (2015). Different Forms of Referent Control. In: Referent control of action and perception. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2736-4_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2736-4_5
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