title: The contractile field--a new model of human movement-part 3.
abstract: A new model, conceptually informed by the embryology and evolutionary biomechanics of vertebrate movement patterns, describes fields of interacting contractility. Each contractile field is modelled as embedding a primary sense organ. Contractile fields are whole organism in scope and are drawn from core mammalian movement patterns such as flexing/extending, lateral flexing, twisting left/right, sucking/squeezing, pulsating and peristaltic movements. Fields of contractility are textile-like in that they warp and weft, river-like in that they widen and narrow. Contractile fields converge to nodes and decussative (crossed) lines, from which they again reradiate. Tuning between muscles within a contractile field, and tuning between fields, shapes movement patterns. An assessment methodology called 'archetypal postures' offers insight to the body's state of biomechanical tune.
authors.affiliation: Orthodox Mews, Wellington, New Zealand. phillipbeach@runbox.com
authors.forename: Phillip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Beach
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D009119:Muscle Contraction / Q000502:physiology*; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000196:embryology* / Q000502:physiology*