A Psychophysiological Approach to Physical Activity

Abstract

When they work under temporal constraints, implying attention control, human subjects can be considered as information processing systems that fulfill a succession of sequential operations where sensory messages are progressively transformed into motor messages. Within this framework of an information-processing view of motor control, the experimental evidence for the motor program to be formed by a set of instructions that correspond to different parameters is provided by using the advance information paradigm about an upcoming movement. Partial advance information is sufficient to trigger preparatory activities specific for the revealed dimension of the ensuing movement. The neurophysiological mechanisms which underlie the preparatory processes for action were studied by recording either the variations in excitability of the spinal and transcortical loops of the stretch reflex, or the scalp Contingent Negative Variation, using laplacian derivations. Different sensorimotor networks appeared to be engaged by preparation of movement according to the parameters involved. This provides evidence in favor of a parametric organization of motor programming.