CiteULike is a free online bibliography manager. Register and you can start organising your references online.

Solving Bernstein's Problem: A Proposal for the Development of Coordinated Movement by Selection Export

Child Development, Vol. 64, No. 4. (1993), pp. 960-981.

Citation Format

[Posts]

View FullText article


Cavadini's tags for this article

developmental human_learning

X Reviews [Write a review of this article]

X Find related articles from these CiteULike users

X Find related articles with these CiteULike tags

X Posting History

X Abstract

In recent years, many established concepts in the theory of human motor development have undergone profound change, and our knowledge has increased greatly. Nevertheless, some outstanding problems remain unsolved. A central problem concerns the redundancy of effective movements, first pointed out by N. A. Bernstein. The human motor system is mechanically complex and can make use of large number of degrees of freedom. The controlled operation of such a system requires a reduction of mechanical redundancy, effectively by reducing the number of degrees of freedom. More recent work has shown that this problem is hard to solve explicitly by computing solutions to the equations of motion of the system. Equally challenging to traditional computational approaches is the fact the motor systems show remarkable adaptability and flexibility in the presence of changing biomechanical properties of motor organs during development and when faced with different environmental conditions or tasks. Solutions to these problems would have a large impact on a variety of issues in child development. In this article, we stress the importance of the somatic selection of neuronal groups in maps for the progressive transformation of a primary movement repertoire into a set of motor synergies and adaptive action patterns. We present results from computer simulations of a simple motor system that works according to such selectional principles. This approach suggests a provisional solution to Bernstein's problem and provides new parameters to guide experimental approaches to the development of sensorimotor coordination.


X BibTeX record

X RIS record


Privacy Statement | Terms & Conditions
CiteULike organises scholarly (or academic) papers or literature and provides bibliographic (which means it makes bibliographies) for universities and higher education establishments. It helps undergraduates and postgraduates. People studying for PhDs or in postdoctoral (postdoc) positions. The service is similar in scope to EndNote or RefWorks or any other reference manager like BibTeX, but it is a social bookmarking service for scientists and humanities researchers.