This volume evolved from a workshop which addressed the general area of motor control, and the broader problems of serial organisation and sensory-motor integration of human skills. A number of specific issues are highlighted, including the neural mechanisms and disabilities of sensory-motor integration, planning and programming of action, the dynamics of interlimb coordination, amendment and updating mechanisms, and in particular, perception-action coupling and the representation of action. Underlying much of the volume are the major theoretical issues which include the debate between computational and prescriptive approaches versus the emergent properties and system dynamics approaches. The book represents a diverse approach from such disciplines as psychology, electrical and mechanical engineering, human movement studies, physiotherapy, neurology, and kinesiology.

Information Processing in Motor Control and Learning provides the theoretical ideas and experimental findings in the field of motor behavior research. The text presents a balanced combination of theory and empirical data. Chapters discuss several theoretical issues surrounding skill acquisition; motor programming; and the nature and significance of preparation, rapid movement sequences, attentional demands, and sensorimotor integration in voluntary movements. The book will be interesting to psychologists, neurophysiologists, and graduate students in related fields.

Despite the intensive experimental and theoretical studies for over a century, the general processes involved in neural control of pasture and movement, in learning of motor behaviour in healthy subjects and in adaptation in pathology were and remain a challenging problems for the scientists in the field of sensorimotor control. The book is the outcome of the Advanced Research Workshop Sensorimotor Control, where the focus was on the state and the perspectives of the study in the field.

Humans are endowed with extraordinary sensory-motor capabilities that enable a successful interaction with and exploration of the environment, as is the case of human manipulation. Understanding and modeling these capabilities represents an important topic not only for neuroscience but also for robotics in a mutual inspiration, both to inform the design and control of artificial systems and, at the same time, to increase knowledge on the biological side. Within this context, synergies -- i.e., goal-directed actions that constrain multi DOFs of the human body and can be defined at the kinematic, muscular, neural level -- have gained increasing attention as a general simplified approach to shape the development of simple and effective artificial devices. The execution of such purposeful sensory-motor primitives on the biological side leverages on the interplay of the sensory-motor control at central and peripheral level, and the interaction of the human body with the external world. This interaction is particularly important considering the new concept of robotic soft manipulation, i.e. soft, adaptable yet robust robotic hands that can deform with the external environment to multiply their grasping and manipulation capabilities. Under this regard, a preeminent role is reserved to touch, being that skin isour primary organ to shape our knowledge of the external world and, hence, to modify it, in interaction with the efferent parts. This Research Topic reports results on the mutual inspiration between neuroscience and robotics, and on how it is possible to translate neuroscientific findings on human manipulation into engineering guidelines for simplified systems able to take full advantage from the interaction and hence exploitation of environmental constraints for task accomplishment and knowledge acquisition.

Motor Behavior and Human Skill details the most recent research in motor control and human skill. The book provides a forum for the analysis of the many diverse theoretical approaches used in the understanding of motor control, including the cognitive, dynamical systems, computational, and neurological approaches.