Motor Control

Motor control is the process by which humans activate and coordinate the muscles and limbs involved in the performance of an action.

Fundamentally, it is the integration of sensory information, both about the world and the current state of the body, to determine the appropriate set of muscle forces and joint activations to generate some desired movement or action. This process requires cooperative interaction between the central nervous system and the musculoskeletal system, and is thus a problem of information processing, coordination, mechanics, physics, and cognition. Successful motor control is crucial to interacting with the world, not only determining action capabilities, but regulating balance and stability as well. Areas of study related to motor control (among others) are motor coordination, motor learning, signal processing, rehabilitation, robotics and perceptual control theory. 

There are a host of laboratories interested in motor control within the School of Psychology, each with their own specific interests. However, we also work in close collaboration in relation to:

  • funding
  • equipment sharing
  • co-supervision of postdoctoral fellows, PhD students and Masters students

Our work also has strong collaborations with members across Sports Science (Jenkinson, McAllister, Punt, Reynolds), Computer Science (Mistry, Wyatt) and MDS (Lord, Beggs).

Current major funding