Biomechanics and Motor Control: Defining Central Concepts provides a thorough update to the rapidly evolving fields of biomechanics of human motion and motor control with research published in biology, psychology, physics, medicine, physical therapy, robotics, and engineering consistently breaking new ground.
This book clarifies the meaning of the most frequently used terms, and consists of four parts, with part one covering biomechanical concepts, including joint torques, stiffness and stiffness-like measures, viscosity, damping and impedance, and mechanical work and energy. Other sections deal with neurophysiological concepts used in motor control, such as muscle tone, reflex, pre-programmed reactions, efferent copy, and central pattern generator, and central motor control concepts, including redundancy and abundance, synergy, equilibrium-point hypothesis, and motor program, and posture and prehension from the field of motor behavior.
The book is organized to cover smaller concepts within the context of larger concepts. For example, internal models are covered in the chapter on motor programs. Major concepts are not only defined, but given context as to how research came to use the term in this manner.
- Presents a unified approach to an interdisciplinary, fragmented area
- Defines key terms for understanding
- Identifies key theories, concepts, and applications across theoretical perspectives
- Provides historical context for definitions and theory evolution
Mark Latash is a Distinguished Professor of Kinesiology and Director of the Motor Control Laboratory at the Pennsylvania State University. He received equivalents of B.S. in Physics and M.S. in Physics of Living Systems from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and a Ph.D. in Physiology from Rush University in Chicago. His research interests are focused on the control and coordination of human voluntary movements, movement disorders in neurological disorders, and effects of rehabilitation. He is the author of “Control of Human Movement” (1993) “The Neurophysiological Basis of Movement” (1998, 2008), “Synergy” (2008), and “Fundamentals of Motor Control” (2012). In addition, he edited eight books and published about 350 papers in refereed journals. Mark Latash served as the Founding Editor of the journal “Motor Control” (1996-2007) and as President of the International Society of Motor Control (2001-2005). He has served as Director of the annual Motor Control Summer School series since 2004. He is a recipient of the Bernstein Prize in motor control.
Vladimir M. Zatsiorsky (b. 1932, Leningrad, USSR) is a professor at the Department of Kinesiology at Penn State University. He has authored and co-authored more than 400 scientific papers and 15 books that are published in English, Russian, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Bulgarian, Romanian, Czech, Hungarian and Serbo-Croatian. Among his books are Kinematics of Human Motion (1998), Kinetics of Human Motion (2002) and Biomechanics of Skeletal Muscles (2012, co-authored with B.I. Prilutsky).
