What is Motor Control?
Motor control is the qualitative balance of muscle usage about a joint to achieve stability of that joint as well as groups of joints participating in a task. Different muscles perform different tasks at the same joint. Some muscles are best suited to stabilize a joint while others work best to move groups of joints. Training differs for these two different types of muscles.
Much of the brain and nervous system is devoted to the processing of sensory input, in order to construct detailed representations of the external environment. Through vision, audition, somatosensation, and the other senses, we perceive the world and our relationship to it. This elaborate processing would be of limited value, however, unless we had a way to act upon the environment that we are sensing, whether that action consist of running away from a predator; seeking shelter against the rain; searching for food when one is hungry; moving one’s lips and vocal cords in order to communicate with others; or performing the countless other varieties of actions that make up our daily lives. In some cases the relationship between the sensory input and the motor output are simple and direct; for example, touching a hot stove elicits an immediate withdrawal of the hand (Figure 1.1). Usually, however, our conscious actions require not only sensory input but a host of other cognitive processes
