title: Action and perception at the level of synergies.
abstract: Meeting the challenge of assembling coherent organizations of very many muscles characterizes a functional level of biological movement systems referred to as the level of muscular-articular links or synergies. The present article examines the issues confronting the forming, regulating, and ordering of synergies and the hypothesized principles, both classical and contemporary, which resolve them. A primary goal of the article is to highlight the abstractness of the concepts and tools required to understand the level's action-perception competence. Coverage is given to symmetry groups, task space, order parameters, metastability, biotensegrity, allometric scaling, and impredicative definitions.
authors.affiliation: Center for the Ecological Study of Perception and Action, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA. michael.turvey@uconn.edu
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Turvey
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000502:physiology; D005246:Feedback / Q000502:physiology; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007596:Joints / Q000502:physiology*; D008124:Locomotion / Q000502:physiology; D008959:Models, Neurological; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D009119:Muscle Contraction / Q000502:physiology*; D010465:Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D004856:Postural Balance / Q000502:physiology; D011434:Proprioception / Q000502:physiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology