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MCC 2009 |
FROM BASIC
MOTOR CONTROL TO FUNCTIONAL RECOVERY VI 5 – |
Our main goal is to contribute significantly to the development in the area of Motor Control at this Forum.
Studies on Motor Control, i.e. the neural control of Posture and Movement, have occupied positions of importance in physiology, psychology clinical neurology and physical medicine for over a century. Despite this multidisciplinary focus, the general processes involved in the transformation from a desired movement to appropriate patterns of muscle activation, are not yet all known. The "mysterious function" of the different structures of the brain responsible for the interaction between posture and movements has received a considerable attention for the last hundred years of experimental and theoretical studies
However, the knowledge about how we plan and initiate
movements, how we keep them going and how we are able to terminate the ongoing
movements still remains to be broadened
How the Brain can cope with existing internal and
external constraints of the body itself to produce a skillful movement was and
remains a challenging problem for the scientists in the field of MOTOR CONTROL
How wonderful it is to witness a child make its first
independent steps then make a stop and smile reaching out with its arms! How
wonderful it is to trace the grace of ballerina movements, challenging gravity
forces! How we want to be able to assist and improve the daily activity of
movement of disabled people!
How we
want to help elderly people to adapt to their age-induced conditions!
The goal of studies of NEURAL CONTROL OF POSTURE AND MOVEMENT i.e. MOTOR CONTROL is to transform our admiration for human movements into knowledge of how desired movement pattern is generated and achieved.
During the last years the interest has shifted from studying how simple movements are being organized to Natural Goal-Directed whole-body Movements control and corresponding body posture and equilibrium control.
Considerable amount of attention has been directed to the transformation of sensory inputs into motor commands. The Relation between structure and function in the Brain mainly how the Brain controls the limbs in voluntary movements is still an open question. With the years the Principles underlying the organization of Initiation and termination of discrete and cyclic movements have become an attractive topic to be addressed keeping in mind that the most important thing is to be able to initiate and then to terminate smoothly the planned movement in space. In our daily life interacting with the environment is performed by Reach to Grasp Movements a topic in Motor Control, which is attracting the attention of many researchers. Then when we are in a situation of impaired body posture and compromise movements it became very important to address Mechanisms for disturbed Physiology and Pathophysiology of Balance and movement coordination and to study them in greater detail. As a way to improve the conditions and adapt patient with movement disorders to daily life activities we can elaborate and propose Rehabilitation strategies for motor control recovery as an output of research of posture and motor coordination. Integration of posture and movement in animals, in humans and impaired posturo-kinetic coordination resulting from different pathology remains a fundamental question to be addressed.
Ten Years after initiating the First Motor Control Conference MCC1999 followed by in two years regular MCC Conferences, the main purpose of the sixth Motor Control Conference MCC2009 is to continue on the paved way offering, within several days, an overview of different areas of Motor Control from theoretical to clinical points of view.
The main hope is to continue with a good tradition enriching the knowledge of the young participants and to broaden their horizons from the restricted area dealt with during their thesis work towards other aspects of Motor Control.
We are proud that Central and Eastern European countries have been
playing an important role in research in the Motor Control area. We are looking
forward to have young scientists and clinicians from all over the world to
improve the opportunities for scientific collaborations between them and