Human Movement Analysis and Enhancement
Introduction
Athletes showcase the pinnacle of human power, endurance and skill, yet tying your shoelace is almost as remarkable a feat of human movement. Movements are coordinated with a speed and precision that few people realise and our collective intelligence doesn’t yet understand. Your brain and spinal cord are sending your muscles a constant stream of impulse commands every second just to browse this webpage! The amount and variety of chemical, mechanical and thermal information feeding back to your brain during and following movement is equally phenomenal and is still largely unexplored. Though one thing is now clear: Humans are designed for and dependent on physical activities for survival, development, and healthy living.
Our group of human movement scientists explores how movement is learned, controlled and maintained, using sophisticated monitoring techniques and computing power to study individual organs such as the brain, heart, kidneys and skeletal muscles for their structure, energy status, electrical activity, and their uptake and release of many chemicals. We analyse movement data by studying skilled athletes, novices and people with movement disorders, as groups and as individuals. We sometimes ask people to repeat the same task many times under identical and differently-controlled conditions, to see what’s common or different between repeated movements, conditions or people.
Another group of movement analysts evaluates and analyses human movement patterns to help people perform better and to reduce their risk of injury during sport, exercise or work. We try to understand the functionality of human performance by using both qualitative and quantitative analysis of movement as well as by measuring the forces acting on, or produced by, the performer.
Relative to the brain, we know far more about processes in the muscles, cardiovascular system, skeleton, and other structures that execute and support movement, and how these adapt to repeated use. But even here, we still need to learn much more about seemingly simple questions such as: what limits human performance in physically demanding occupations and sport, and how much, what timing and what mix of exercise modalities optimises health? Such questions can only be answered when we know what is going on under the lid; within and between the body’s 75 trillion cells – most of which are impacted directly by human movement.
Group Members
Key Publications
Button, C., Andersen, N., Bradford, C., Cotter, J.D., Ainslie, P.N. (2007). The effect of multidirectional mechanical vibration on peripheral circulation of humans. Clinical Physiology and Functional Imaging. 27:4, 211-216.
Chow, J-Y., Davids, K., Button, C., Shuttleworth, R. Renshaw, I., & Araújo, D. (2007). The role of nonlinear pedagogy in physical education. Review of Educational Research. 77, 251-278.
Button, C. & Abbott, A.J. (2007). Identifying and developing athletic potential. International Journal of Sport Psychology: Special Issue on Nature-Nurture and Sport Performance, 38:1, 83-86.
Anson, G., Elliott, D, & Davids, K. (2005). Information processing and constraints-based views of skill acquisition: Divergent or complementary? Motor Control 9: 217-241.
Jordan, K., Hyland, B.I., Wickens, J.R., & Anson, J.G. (2005). Motor preparation in a memorised delay task. Experimental Brain Research, 166, 102-108.
Welsh, T.N., Elliott, D., Anson, J.G., Dhillon, V, Weeks, D.J., Lyons, J.L. and Chua, R. (2005). Does Joe influence Fred’s action? Inhibition of return across different nervous systems. Neuroscience Letters, 385, 99-104.
Hansen, S., Glazebrook, C., Anson, G., Weeks, D., and Elliott, D. (2006) The influence of advance information about target knowledge and visual feedback on movement planning and execution. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 60, 200-208.
Latash, M.L. and Anson, J.G. (2006) Synergies and practice: A recipe for adaptive changes in motor coordination. Physical Therapy, 86, 1151-1160
Obhi, S., Lyons, J., Welsh, T.N., Glazebrook, C.M., Anson, G., and Elliott, D. (2007) The perceived time of voluntary action for adults with and without Down-syndrome. Down Syndrome Quarterly , 9, 4-9.
Welsh, T.N., Lyons, J., Weeks, D.J., Anson, J.G., Chua, R. and Elliott, D. (2007) Within- and between-nervous system inhibition of return: Observation is as good as performance. Psychonomics Bulletin & Review, 14, 950-956.
Lucas, S., Anson, J.G., Angelm, N., Walker, R., Roberts, W., Palmer, C. and Cotter, J.D. (2008) Intensity and physiological strain of competitive ultra-endurance exercise in humans Journal of Sports Sciences, 26, 477-489.
Fischman, M. Christina, R.W. and Anson, J.G. (in press) Memory Drum Theory’s “C” Movement: Revelations from Franklin Henry. Research Quarterly for Exercise & Sport Science, (2008)
