An outcome of the MCC1999 Motor Control Conference was a Book of Papers entitled 

FROM BASIC MOTOR CONTROL TO FUNCTION RECOVERY I -

CONCEPTS, THEORIES AND MODELS - PRESENT STATE AND PERSPECTIVES

        Presented at the MCC1999 Conference, containing more than 80 papers published by Editing House of Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

The Book was dedicated to the 100 years of creating

BULGARIAN ACADEMY of SCIENCES

 
       The theme of this Book is Motor Control. The book is organised in 6 major sections. The main idea was to represent the questions addressed in the field of Motor Control from experimental points of view starting with animal experiments (rats, cats and monkeys). 

      The integration of posture and movement into an elaborate system is addressed in the first section. The second section is devoted to postural control and posturo - kinetic co-ordination, presenting concepts, theories and models. The third part is related to the cyclic daily life motor task, the way we are able to keep locomotion revealing its basic mechanisms and the ones of functional recovery. Organization and control of the upper limb movement is the topic of the forth section. in a fifth section Special attention is paid to the equilibrium (EP) point theory being considered from various modern viewpoints presented in the Round table discussion. The important role of different sensory inputs related to reflex and central organization of impaired posture and movement is discussed in the sixth section. The problems of impaired posture and movement coordination are presented.

During the MCC1999 Motor Control Conference, another Book was also promoted

MOTOR CONTROL TODAY AND TOMORROW

Edited by

Gantcho GANTCHEV, Shigemi MORI and Jean MASSION
 

       This Book was a result of the efforts for several years to collect review Papers in the filed of Motor Control written by the leading scientists and clinicians who has participated in the Symposium of Motor Control held during the years in BULGARIA. Their contributions address issues concerning normal and pathophysiological aspects of the peripheral and central motor activity, including the control of complex motor acts, posturo-kinetic coordination, motor adaptation, and the acquisition and learning of motor skills.

     This Book is organized in 4 major sections and is an outcome of contribution of leading scientists in the field of Motor Control. 

      First section: Spinal and brainstem mechanisms of Motor Control
      Second section: Peripheral and central mechanisms in skill performance and acquisition
      Third section: Internal Models of Motor Control
      Forth section: Co-ordinate actions in healthy and patients
 

An outcome of the MCC2001 Motor Control Conference  was a Book of Papers entitled

 FROM BASIC MOTOR CONTROL TO FUNCTION RECOVERY II

TOWARDS UN UNDERSTANDING OF THE ROLE OF MOTOR CONTROL - FROM SIMPLE SYSTEMS TO HUMAN PERFORMANCE

       Presented at the Conference, containing more than 50 papers published by Editing House of Bulgaria Academy of Sciences.

The theme of this Book is Motor Control. The Book is divided into 7 Sections. The papers are grouped into Sections reflecting the main idea of the Varna Conference to address the studies in Motor Control from Basic Motor Control to functional recovery. The first section is entitled "Integration of Posture and Movements in animals" addressing the underlying neural mechanisms responsible its generation and control. The second section is devoted to "Balance and Locomotion control in Humans". The third section "Control of reaching movements" addressing daily life motor task, the way we control reaching movements to precision grip. In the forth section "Central organization of Motor Control" using contemporary approach of studding based on transcranial magnetic stimulation or repetitive electrical stimulation on the somatosensory evoked fields the mechanisms of central organization of Motor Control are addressed. In section fifth "Equilibrium point theory - hypothesis and comments" the hypothesis and comments on Equilibrium Point EP theory is discussed from different points of view. In section sixth section 'Movement disorders" this time with more particular attention on Parkinson's disease and problems as a function of stroke incidents are addressed. In the last seventh section "Functional recovery" the rehabilitation strategies for motor control recovery are addressed. Starting from improving hand function to neurorehabilitation of reach to grasp movement to functional recovery of balance control are the questions addressed in this section.  

 An outcome of the MCC2003 Motor Control Conference  was a Book of Papers entitled

 FROM BASIC MOTOR CONTROL TO FUNCTION RECOVERY III

The theme of the book is a Motor Control. The book is organized in six sections following the spirit of  Motor Control Conference to address the studies from Basic Motor Research to Functional recovery.

 The First section is entitled: BASIC MOTOR CONTROL

Addressing from the role of proprioreceptors to the mechanisms of motor selection during voluntary action. The question of reactions to sudden loading and unloading is addressed in an order to understand whether the regulation of loading is the central issue in these reactions. The role of afferent input in its relation with modification of motor cortex excitability is illustrated. A general question of learning of motor skills defined as an outcome of motor performance is an area addressing individual learning processes when acquiring a motor skill.

 The Second section is entitled: FROM POSTURE TO GAIT IN HUMANS

The place given in Varna Motor Control meeting is always important related to the studies addressing the mechanisms of maintaining the stable body posture and to the human gait. In this section the mechanisms of postural control are addressed from the role of feedforward control to biomechanical evaluation of postural stability with relation to the involvement of the motor cortex. The control and mechanisms of human locomotion is essential part of motor control studies especially the foot trajectory and the way of meeting the fear of falling observed in elderly people. The role of vestibular and visual information is addressed in a way of further understanding of their meaning.

The Third section is entitled: CONTROL OF REACHING MOVEMENTS

As an already good tradition a section on control of reaching movements is organized starting from the development of reaching movements in children to the effect of time constrain on prehension in older adults.

In the presentation of a study the result was reported that both transport and grip components of reach-to-grasp movements are altered when a forearm pronation is made during the reach in a preplanned manner. In addition it was demonstrated that the aperture closure distance prior to grasping an object is invariant. In this section the programmation and the execution of reaching-grasping goal-directed movements is described. Those mechanisms studied by applying trains of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) on the motor and premotor cortices before the execution of a visuo-motor task are studied. It was argued that rTMS could be an invaluable tool in order to explore different aspects of the high order cortical functions including language, visual processing and memory, thus exploring some basic main aspects of the human motor behavior.

 The Forth section is entitled: MOVEMENT DISORDERS

In this section we continue with the particular attention to Parkinson’s disease and problems emerging from the status of subjects after stroke incidents. Here a special attention is given to movement analysis to understand walking patterns, gait initiation strategies, postural attitudes in Parkinsonian patients up to the analysis of walking of those patients under different therapeutic treatments: L-dopa, dbs and their combination.

The problems of patients with hemiparesis after acute stroke are illustrated presenting new findings which further highlight the mechanisms of pathology thus leading to improvement the therapy. Using botulinum toxin injection for the treatment of equines foot in cerebral palsy was described with special attention focusing on ankle and knee joints. Functional electrical stimulation in hemiparetics was illustrated and discussed as well.

 The Fifth section is entitled: FUNCTIONAL RECOVERY

This section is of considerable importance during Varna Motor Control Conference. Passing from basic findings, addressing the problems caused by Movement disorders we are facing the problem how to restore to a possible extend the impairment motor behavior, how to recover the function of using different rehabilitation procedures and strategies.

In this section neuroplasticity is discussed being considered as a vehicle for Motor Control recovery in hemiplegic subjects. It is argued that reorganization is likely the key process responsible for recovery of functions after a stroke, a question what role will neuronal progenitor cells play in future rehabilitation—stimulated in situ or as neural replacement has been put forward. Special attention was paid to the clinical evaluation of functional electrical therapy (FET) for improving arm/hand functioning in hemiplegic subjects. It is reported that FET forced the patients to be actively involved in the arm movement, while their grasp was assisted in natural manner.

Here the contribution of neural mechanisms in promoting finger extension deficits following stroke has been described. It is very important question, having in mind the recovery of the function of precise movements involving fingers of the hand.

Furthermore, a review on novel physical treatment strategies in automated motor rehabilitation after stroke have been presented. The introduction of new techniques and approach related to rehabilitation of upper and lower limbs was discussed as well.

For the upper limbs the following systems, “MIME” robot enabling the bilateral practice of shoulder and elbow-movements in the horizontal plane following the master (non-affected) and slave (affected extremity), and the “Bi-Manu-Track” robot enabling the bilateral passive and active practice of two distal movements: forearm pro- / supination and wrist flexion / extension were discussed. As for the lower limbs automatic rehabilitation the electromechanical “Gait Trainer” was proposed and its application is discussed.

 The sixth section is entitled: FATIGUE

In a new section introduced in the Book the mechanisms of the condition of fatigue are described starting from assessment of neural factors in maximal voluntary performance to the contractile properties and fatigability of the muscles exposed to stimulated weightlessness.

The mechanisms of reduced force after prolonged stretching of the muscles were described. And evidence for interaction between the mechanical changes of the muscle-tendon unit and reduced reflex sensitivity after repeated and prolonged passive muscle stretching was presented as well.