PSYC 427 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Inverse Kinematics, Thermostat, Triceps Brachii Muscle
Document Summary
Control variables relate to measurable quantities that are physical correlates of neural activity or direct physical measures. Want to measure patterns of limb movements and associated neural activity. Which is the control variable used by the nervous system. Hard because almost all of these things are correlated so the challenge is to figure out which is the fundamental variable. Two basic classes of explanation (position control, force control). Position control brain controls some variant of things related to position. It"s any kinematic variable (characteristics of movements that don"t have forces as a component. Equilibrium-point hypothesis is a variant of the position control explanation. In trying to control robots, both of these control schemes have been used. Force control is pretty unstable problem is that hard to maintain contract with object (robots controlled via force have notorious problem of bouncing up and down, difficult to come to soft landing)
