This Sunday, January 27, the Royal Canadian Institute for Science hosted a panel discussion on the science of human movement, featuring Professor Timothy Welsh and Assistant Professor Joyce Chen from the University of Toronto Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education and Professor Milos Popovic, senior scientist & director at the Research Institute at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute.
The talk focused on the complex set of neuromuscular activity behind human movement, from high performance athletes and musicians to persons recovering from stroke or injury.
“There are many common misconceptions about movement and how we move,” says Welsh. “The three main ones are that we only have five senses, that movement is simple and something we do not have to think about and that expert athletes are great performers because they have great, automatic reflexes.”
Welsh explains that there are many unconscious senses like the baro receptors in our arteries and veins, which provide information about our blood pressure. For movement, the most important ones are our sense of muscle length, provided by muscle spindles, and our sense of head orientation and movement, provided by vestibular apparatus.
“Without these senses, we would not know where our bodies, limbs and head would be with our eyes closed,” says Welsh.
As for expert athletes, Welsh says what makes them stand out is that they have very efficient sensorimotor systems that can very quickly and effectively select and plan the right movements, time them properly, predict the consequences of the actions and adapt them for different circumstances.
“What truly marks expertise is not automation, but consistency and adaptation or flexibility,” he says.
So, while many people seem to take movement for granted, nothing could be further from the case, according to Welsh, who hopes the panel was able to peel back the mask and help develop a stronger appreciation for the complex and fragile nature of the human sensorimotor system.
“Movement is one of the fundamental aspects of our lives,” he says. “The ability to teach people to move, design effective technological interfaces and help people recover their movement capabilities is critical to improving quality of life,” he says.