BME Seminar by Prof Jason Friedman

There is a model of human movement that claims that movements are planned based on intermittent control – rather than planning our movements on a moment-by-moment basis, we instead control our movement trajectories at discrete points in time. Such a scheme is likely used to ensure the stability of our movements, given the inherent large delays in receiving sensory feedback. Intermittent control can be realized using submovements – short-duration movements (in the order of 2-4Hz) that can overlap in their execution. Given a movement trajectory, we can decompose it into its constituent, overlapping submovements. In the talk, I will provide examples of how extracting submovements can enhance our understanding of how movement differs in specific populations (such as children, older adults, and individuals with Parkinson’s disease), the relationship between movements and decision-making processes, and the connection between movements and cognitive load. In addition, I will describe the effect of movement speed on submovement execution and provide recommendations on how submovements should be utilized for optimal human-robotic interactions.