Motor Control Modules of Human Movement in Health and Disease

Human movements exhibit considerable variability and are highly complex in terms of both neural activation and biomechanical output. However, much evidence now indicates that a relatively low-dimensional organizational structure may underlie the rich complexity of neuromechanical output by using a few motor modules or motor primitives. This chapter focuses on locomotion as one of the basic activities of everyday life. It discusses data and concepts that offer a new approach, based on the modular architecture of neuronal networks, to characterizing the mechanisms underlying control of human movements that may potentially benefit the study of pathological gait and the ability of current therapeutic exercises to change or optimize patient outcomes. In the case of locomotion, central pattern generators (CPGs) and rhythm generation networks can be considered as important functional units or modules that determine a variety of locomotor movements in health and disease.