Biomechanics and Motor Control

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).

• PrefacePart One: Biomechanical ConceptsChapter 1. Joint Torque Chapter 2. Stiffness and Stiffness-Like MeasuresChapter 3. Velocity-Dependent ResistanceChapter 4. Mechanical Work and Energy Part Two: Neurophysiological ConceptsChapter 5. Muscle toneChapter 6. ReflexesChapter 7. Preprogrammed ReactionsChapter 8. Efferent CopyChapter 9. Central Pattern Generator Part Three: Motor Control ConceptsChapter 10. Redundancy and AbundanceChapter 11. Motor SynergyChapter 12. Equilibrium-Point HypothesisChapter 13. Motor ProgramPart Four: Examples of Motor BehaviorsChapter 14. PostureChapter 15. GraspingGlossary