How do humans manage their actions and interactions with the physical world? How do we learn new skills or re-learn basic behaviors after injury, such as reaching to drink from a glass without spilling? Our research approach analyzes how task dynamics constrain and enable actions and their improvement with practice. Characteristic of our research is to start with a mechanical model of the task and render it in a virtual environment with a fully known workspace. Based on mathematical analyses of the modeled task, we study how humans develop solutions to meet complex task demands. Key concepts in our analysis are variability, stability, and predictability. Using three model tasks, throwing a ball, rhythmic bouncing of a ball, and transporting a “cup of coffee”, we show that humans develop skill by: 1) finding error-tolerant strategies and channeling noise into task-irrelevant dimensions, 2) exploiting solutions with dynamic stability, 3) optimizing predictability of object dynamics. These findings are the basis for developing propositions about the controller: We propose that complex actions are generated with dynamic primitives, modules that overcome substantial delays and noise in the neuro-mechanical system. Using these experimental platforms we have developed interventions that assess or help restore functional behavior in neurological patients.

Short Biography: Dagmar Sternad received her BS in Movement Science and Linguistics from the Technical University and Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich and her PhD in Experimental Psychology from the University of Connecticut. From 1995 until 2008, she was Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor at the Pennsylvania State University in Integrative Biosciences and Kinesiology. Since 2008, she holds an interdisciplinary appointment as full professor in the departments of Biology, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Physics at Northeastern University in Boston. Her research is documented in over 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, and several books. She has editorial appointments in several scientific journals and is regular member of an NIH study section. Her research has been continuously supported by the National Institute of Health, National Science Foundation, American Heart Association, Office of Naval Research, and others.