Motor Control Lab - Department of Kinesiology

The Fifth MCSS will be held July 11-15, 2008 outside of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The current list of invited speakers is:

Paul Cisek - University of Montreal
Anatol Feldman - University of Montreal
C.J. Heckman - Northwestern University
Mark Latash - Penn State University
Mindy Levin - McGill University
Bradford McFadyen - University of Laval
Richard Nichols - Georgia Tech University

If you would like to participate in the Fifth MCSS, please e-mail a letter of interest to Mark Latash with a single-file attachment that contains a statement of personal goals, a brief description of your current projects, and a c.v. with the list of publications and presentations.

The Fourth MCSS was June 21-25, 2007 at the Antiochian Village in the Laurel Mountains of Pennsylvania. The presentations and discussions focused on human motor planning, generalization and variability in motor learning, the derees of freedom problem in motor control, the uncontrolled manifold hypothesis, postural synergies, and the equilibrium point hypothesis. The invited speakers included:

Anatol Feldman -University of Montreal
Mark Latash, Penn State University
Mindy Levin, McGill University
Zong-Ming Li, University of Pittsburgh
David Ostry, McGill University
David Rosenbaum, Penn State University
John Scholz, University of Delaware

The Third MCSS took place in "The Antiochian Village", Ligonier (PA) in the Laurel mountains on July 13-17, 2006. July 13 was the arrival day with a welcome party starting at about 6 p.m. For the next three days, there were morning and evening sessions (3 hours each) and a long break in the middle of the day for hiking. Each day culminated in a Happy Hour. The presentations and discussions focused on the organization of perception and action with an emphasis on haptic perception, biomechanical and motor unit analysis of prehension, uncontrolled manifold hypothesis and its applications to multi-digit actions, inverse dynamics and the role of hemispheric dominance, and - as usual - the equilibrium-point hypothesis.

The meeting took place in "Antiochian Village", Ligonier (PA) in the Laurel mountains on June 24-28, 2005. June 24 was the arrival day with a welcome party starting at about 7 p.m. For the next three days, there were morning and evening sessions (3 hours each) and a long break in the middle of the day for hiking. Each day culminated in a Happy Hour. The presentations and discussions focused on the role of dendritic persistent inward currents, inter-joint reflexes, force dependent feedback loops, synergies among motor units, cortical control of prehension, the role of the basal ganglia and Parkinson's disease, uncontrolled manifold hypothesis and anticipatory changes in synergies, inverse dynamics and the role of hemispheric dominance, and - as usual - the equilibrium-point hypothesis.

The meeting took place in Jim Thorpe (PA) in the Pocono mountains on July 7-11, 2004. July 7 was the arrival day with a welcome party starting at about 7 p.m. For the next three days, there were morning and evening sessions (3 hours each) and a long break in the middle of the day for hiking. Each day culminated in a Happy Hour. The presentations and discussions focused on interpreting electromyographic signals, effects of practice, equilibrium-point hypothesis, uncontrolled manifold hypothesis, dynamic systems approach, and biomechanics and control of prehension.