What is the point of motor planning?

Abstract

In this paper we review our theory of posture‐based motion planning, which emphasizes the fact that a single action may be governed by a number of simultaneous constraints and that motion planning is hierarchical with initial emphasis on the determination of goal postures. We critically review the development of the theory and summarize the sources of evidence for its assumptions. We then relate the theory to other recent developments in cognitive neuroscience ‐ such as the growing importance of ideomotor theory ‐ and discuss possible applications of our theory to sport and exercise science.

Key words:

• motor planning
• degrees of freedom
• reaching
• manual control
• computational model