Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences logoLink to Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
. 1999 May 29;354(1385):841–847. doi: 10.1098/rstb.1999.0436

Neuromuscular control: introduction and overview.

J L van Leeuwen 1
PMCID: PMC1692592  PMID: 10382220

Abstract

This paper introduces some basic concepts of the interdisciplinary field of neuromuscular control, without the intention to be complete. The complexity and multifaceted nature of neuromuscular control systems is briefly addressed. Principles of stability and planning of motion trajectories are discussed. Closed-loop and open-loop control are considered, together with the inherent stability properties of muscles and the geometrical design of animal bodies. Various modelling approaches, as used by several authors in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B, May 1999 issue, such as inverse and forward dynamics are outlined. An introductory overview is presented of the other contributions in that issue.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (147.1 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Ballintijn M, Cate C. Sound production in the collared dove: a test of the 'whistle' hypothesis . J Exp Biol. 1998 May;201(Pt 10):1637–1649. doi: 10.1242/jeb.201.10.1637. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Biewener AA, Corning WR, Tobalske BW. In vivo pectoralis muscle force-length behavior during level flight in pigeons (Columba livia) . J Exp Biol. 1998 Dec;201(Pt 24):3293–3307. doi: 10.1242/jeb.201.24.3293. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Carling J, Williams TL, Bowtell G. Self-propelled anguilliform swimming: simultaneous solution of the two-dimensional navier-stokes equations and Newton's laws of motion . J Exp Biol. 1998 Dec;201(Pt 23):3143–3166. doi: 10.1242/jeb.201.23.3143. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. De Schutter E., Bower J. M. An active membrane model of the cerebellar Purkinje cell II. Simulation of synaptic responses. J Neurophysiol. 1994 Jan;71(1):401–419. doi: 10.1152/jn.1994.71.1.401. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Fee M. S., Shraiman B., Pesaran B., Mitra P. P. The role of nonlinear dynamics of the syrinx in the vocalizations of a songbird. Nature. 1998 Sep 3;395(6697):67–71. doi: 10.1038/25725. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Goller F., Larsen O. N. A new mechanism of sound generation in songbirds. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1997 Dec 23;94(26):14787–14791. doi: 10.1073/pnas.94.26.14787. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Goller F., Larsen O. N. In situ biomechanics of the syrinx and sound generation in pigeons. J Exp Biol. 1997 Aug;200(Pt 16):2165–2176. doi: 10.1242/jeb.200.16.2165. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Harris C. M., Wolpert D. M. Signal-dependent noise determines motor planning. Nature. 1998 Aug 20;394(6695):780–784. doi: 10.1038/29528. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Hines M. Efficient computation of branched nerve equations. Int J Biomed Comput. 1984 Jan-Feb;15(1):69–76. doi: 10.1016/0020-7101(84)90008-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Hogan N. An organizing principle for a class of voluntary movements. J Neurosci. 1984 Nov;4(11):2745–2754. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.04-11-02745.1984. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Liu H., Wassersug R., Kawachi K. The three-dimensional hydrodynamics of tadpole locomotion. J Exp Biol. 1997 Nov;200(Pt 22):2807–2819. doi: 10.1242/jeb.200.22.2807. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Liu H, Ellington C, Kawachi K, c A computational fluid dynamic study of hawkmoth hovering . J Exp Biol. 1998 Feb;201(Pt 4):461–477. doi: 10.1242/jeb.201.4.461. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Nelson W. L. Physical principles for economies of skilled movements. Biol Cybern. 1983;46(2):135–147. doi: 10.1007/BF00339982. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. doi: 10.1098/rstb.1997.0038. [DOI] [PMC free article] [Google Scholar]
  15. Spoor C. W., van Leeuwen J. L. Knee muscle moment arms from MRI and from tendon travel. J Biomech. 1992 Feb;25(2):201–206. doi: 10.1016/0021-9290(92)90276-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Wild J. M. Functional anatomy of neural pathways contributing to the control of song production in birds. Eur J Morphol. 1997 Oct;35(4):303–325. doi: 10.1076/ejom.35.4.303.13077. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Wilhelms-Tricarico R. Physiological modeling of speech production: methods for modeling soft-tissue articulators. J Acoust Soc Am. 1995 May;97(5 Pt 1):3085–3098. doi: 10.1121/1.411871. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences are provided here courtesy of The Royal Society

RESOURCES