Professor Peter J. Beek , Research Institute MOVE, Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University Amsterdam

Title
Anchoring – theory, methods and findings

Abstract
In many cyclical tasks, movement trajectories are consistently oriented towards discrete points in the movement cycle resulting in a local thinning of trajectories in state space. This phenomenon has been called anchoring and a good number of studies have been conducted to uncover its causal underpinnings. In the present key-note lecture, different operational definitions and corresponding methods and findings will be reviewed, culminating in the understanding that anchor points may be either self-selected or imposed, that the distinction between spatial and temporal anchor points is not straightforward, and that anchoring results – in additive rather than interactive fashion – from both informational factors related to perceptual-motor (e.g., eye-hand, auditory-motor) coordination and mechanical factors related to muscle function and the storage and release of energy. Implications of these findings for modeling are discussed and linked to notions of discrete control theories like referential behavioral theory.

Biography
Peter J. Beek was born in Delft , the Netherlands , in 1959. He received a M.Sc. degree (in 1985) and a Ph.D. degree (in 1989) degree from the Faculty of Human Movement Sciences of VU University Amsterdam , where he became P rofessor of Coordination Dynamics in 1998. His research interests cover a broad range of topics in motor control, including the control of gait and posture, the relationship between cyclical and discrete movements, bimanual coordination, the coupling of perception and action, motor learning and expertise. Using concepts and tools from the theory of stochastic dynamical systems, he seeks to chart and understand the dynamical organization of motor activities like standing, walking, forearm cycling, tapping, tracking, catching and juggling . To this end, he builds and studies dynamical models of brain activity and motor behavior that motivate experiments, which in turn constrain modeling efforts. In addition, he seeks applications of basic insights into motor control and coordination in clinical studies of motor pathologies in selected patient groups, including Parkinson's disease and stroke, aimed at improving the diagnosis, rehabilitation, and daily functioning of the patients in question. Since 1999, he is editor of Human Movement Science, a multidisciplinary journal on motor control and learning that has published selected proceedings of various editions of the Motor Control & Human Skill Conference.

Professor Mark L. Latash , The Pennsylvania State University , University Park , PA 16802 , USA

Title
Effects of Practice on Typical and Atypical Motor Synergies

Abstract
The recent progress in studies of multi-element, redundant systems has been to a large degree defined by the introduction of an operational definition for synergies as neural mechanisms that ensure low variance of important performance variables while allowing relatively high total variance within the system. This definition has offered a tool to quantify synergies at a variety of levels of analysis, kinematic, kinetic, and electromyographic. In particular, atypical synergies have been quantified in persons with Down syndrome, healthy elderly, and persons with neurological disorders. Both typical and atypical synergies show changes with practice that are not always intuitively clear and may involve emergence of previously absent synergies, strengthening of synergies, as well as their apparent weakening. Despite the relatively small number of studies quantifying changes in motor synergies with practice, these first results have already led to important insights into what practice can do to motor coordination. In particular, the classical Bernstein scheme of stages in skill acquisition may have to be reconsidered. These studies have also shown the vast room for improvement of coordination in some of the atypical populations.

Biography
Mark L. Latash received M.S. in physics of living systems from the Moscow Physico-Technical Institute and PhD in physiology from Rush University in Chicago . He is interested in the control and coordination of multi-element systems participating in the production of voluntary movements, the control of posture, multi-joint reaching, finger coordination, and the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying motor control. Mark Latash is also interested in the neural control of apparently atypical movements such as those performed by persons with Down syndrome, healthy elderly, and persons with neurological disorders, as well as in the effects of practice on motor coordination. Currently, Mark Latash is Director of the Motor Control Laboratory (Department of Kinesiology at Penn State ). He served as the Founding Editor of Motor Control (1996-2007) and as the first President of the International Society of Motor Control (2001-2005). He published over 240 papers in refereed journals and several books including Control of Human Movement (1993), Neurophysiological Basis of Movement (1996, 2008), and Synergy (2008). Mark Latash is a Fellow in the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education and the recipient of the Bernstein Prize in 2007.

Professor Howard Zelaznik , Purdue University , USA

Title
Goals, Kinematics and Events in Timing Control

Abstract
During the past decade my laboratory, along with Richard Ivry, has promoted the notion that people can time with a timer; this process we called event timing. We also proposed that certain tasks can be timed indirectly. In other words, timing emerges from trajectory control processes. We called this latter process emergent timing, in deference to a dynamical systems approach to control. In the present presentation I will briefly review some of the already published evidence in support of this framework, and then present two new sets of experiments that we interpret to support the idea that the event-emergent distinction does not reside solely in kinematic differences between classes of tasks. Rather, goal representations and intermittent feedback are crucial determinants of timing control processes.

Biography
Howard Zelaznik, is a Professor of Health and Kinesiology at Purdue University . He received a BS in Physical Education from Brooklyn College in 1974, and also met the requirements for a second major in Psychology. He received his MS in Physical for the University of Michigan in 1975, and his Ph.D. in Physical Education from University of Southern California in 1978, under the direction of Richard A. Schmidt. After a one-year stint at Florida State University in 1978, he has spent the rest of his career at Purdue. Howie (as he is called) is also a member of the Purdue Integrative Program in Neuroscience, and has been a member of the Department of Psychological Sciences at Purdue since 1980. He was an Editor of the Journal of Motor Behavior from 1989 – 1996. He has co-authored a paper on the speed accuracy trade-off, published in the Psychological Review that has over 500 citations. His 1983 paper on visual control has over 120 citations. In 2003 he published a paper in Science that will turn out to be dead right or dead wrong (hopefully the former, but who knows). His collaborative work in speech motor control has been NIH funded for 18 consecutive years. Currently his is PI on an NSF grant for Skill Learning in Humanoid Robots. In his free time, he runs 45 kilometres a week, walks a golden retriever and a Labrador retriever. Finally, he is known as a grass roots soccer official by FIFA, and also referees high school soccer during the fall.