We present the perspective that interpersonal movement coordination results from establishing interpersonal synergies. Interpersonal synergies are higher-order control systems formed by coupling movement system degrees of freedom of two (or more) actors. Characteristic features of synergies identified in studies of intrapersonal coordination - dimensional compression and reciprocal compensation...

INTRODUCTION Cerebral palsy (CP) is caused by an injury to the brain and causes problems with movement and coordination due to impaired voluntary motor control. Past research has shown that muscle activity during human movement can be described by a small set of weighted simultaneous muscle activations known as synergies. Synergies are estimated by measuring muscle activations with electromyogr...

There is no theoretical or empirical evidence to suggest how the central nervous system (CNS) controls a variety of muscles associated with gait transition between walking and running. Here, we examined the motor control during a gait transition based on muscle synergies, which modularly organize functionally similar muscles. To this end, the subjects walked or ran on a treadmill and performed ...

To generate a force at the hand in a given spatial direction and with a given magnitude the central nervous system (CNS) has to coordinate the recruitment of many muscles. Because of the redundancy in the musculoskeletal system, the CNS can choose one of infinitely many possible muscle activation patterns which generate the same force. What strategies and constraints underlie such selection is ...

Flux balance analysis (FBA) is an increasingly useful approach for modeling the behavior of metabolic systems. However, standard FBA modeling of genetic knockouts cannot predict drug combination synergies observed between serial metabolic targets, even though such synergies give rise to some of the most widely used antibiotic treatments. Here we extend FBA modeling to simulate responses to chem...

Muscle synergies have been hypothesized to be the building blocks used by the central nervous system to generate movement. According to this hypothesis, the accomplishment of various motor tasks relies on the ability of the motor system to recruit a small set of synergies on a single-trial basis and combine them in a task-dependent manner. It is conceivable that this requires a fine tuning of t...

40 Previous studies in neurologically intact subjects have shown that motor coordination can be 41 described by task-dependent combinations of a few muscle synergies, defined here as a fixed 42 pattern of activation across a set of muscles. Arm function in severely impaired stroke survivors 43 is characterized by stereotypical postural and movement patterns involving the shoulder and 44 elbow. ...

almost all countries in the world are party to the rio conventions. this entails a number of responsibilities, including reporting periodically on aspects of environmental health and national implementation of the convention. these reports can cover hundreds of pages, so completing reports is often a significant undertaking. since countries can be party to numerous multilateral environmental ag...

We describe a discrete-time auction procedure called PAUSE (Progressive Adaptive User Selection Environment) for use in assigning COLR (Carrier of Last Resort) responsibility for universal service. The auction incorporates synergies by permitting all combinatorial bids, is transparent to the bidders, allows for multiple winners, and minimizes the possibility of bidder collusion. The procedure i...

Animals such as reptiles, amphibians and mammals (including humans) are mechanically extremely complex. It has been estimated that the human body has between 500 and 1400 degrees of freedom! And yet, these animals can generate an infinite variety of very precise, complicated and goal-directed movements in continuously changing and uncertain environments. Understanding how this is achieved is of...