Bernstein's Theory of Movement Behavior: Historical Development and Contemporary Relevance

Abstract

In present-day movement science, N. A. Bernstein's formulation of the problems of motor control is often taken as the starting point. The reliance on Bernstein has not brought agreement among his followers, however. In this article, the authors pose the following question: Does the disagreement arise from the structure of his work itself or from incomplete exploitation of his thinking? By using, inter alia, Bernstein's 24 English and German articles, the authors present an analysis of the development of Bernstein's theory of movement behavior, against the backdrop of the scientific progress in the Soviet Union in Bernstein's time and the clashes between Soviet politics and science. Bernstein addressed in his early articles the measurement and biomechanical analysis of movements. His experimental data soon indicated the need for a new understanding of the organization of movements, which he formulated in terms of coordination. Because of political problems, his work was interrupted; but after being "rehabilitated" and again allowed to work, Bernstein aimed to explain how animals find and optimize the solutions to motor problems. The structure of the theory that ensued was comprehensive exactly by virtue of his repeatedly shifting focus between the different aspects of the organization of movement: More important than the answers he gave were the questions he asked. Moreover, the way he approached those questions may help scientists solve pressing problems in present-day movement science.

The effects of stride length and stride frequency on trunk coordination in human walking

“…The original studies of thorax-pelvis relative phase in different forms of pathology [4,7] stemmed from inspiration by Bernstein's 1935 concept of ''coordination'' [17][18][19], combined with the idea, from the theory of dynamical systems [20], that somehow thoraxpelvis phase relationships are self-organised [11]. In general, there is hardly any doubt that self-organisation plays an important role in walking [21,22], but above a certain speed, the passive dynamics of the system are insufficiently powerful to produce a further speeding-up [23].…”

Force-displacement differences in the lower extremities of young healthy adults between drop jumps and drop landings

“…Historically, Bernstein (1967) proposed that since there is such multiplicity of inputs which lead to eventual outputs (such as joint torque or ground reaction force), and the effects of those inputs vary depending upon intrinsic and extrinsic conditions; that the neural load of attempting to control each of those inputs through a feed-forward control system would be too great to allow for efficient movement. Therefore, he proposed that those inputs are adjusted based upon neural information of output (Bongaardt and Meijer, 2007;Zajac & Winters, 1990). This conclusion has been supported by subsequent research in neural control (Ito, 1996).…”

An Early Oscillator Model: Studieson the Biodynamics of the Piano Strike (Bernstein & Popova, 1930)

“…Bernstein was always inspired by mathematics, but not much of a mathematician himself, rather striving to cooperate with others (such as Gelʼfand and Tsetlin in his later years; cf. Bongaardt & Meijer, 2000). Popova, however, was an educated mathematician.…”