Haskins Publications

Number	396
Year	1982
Drawer	7
Entry Date	11/19/1999
Authors	Kelso, J. A. S., & Saltzman, E. L.
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Publication	The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 5, 554-557.
url	http://www.haskins.yale.edu/Reprints/HL0396.pdf
Abstract	[Introduction] When we are confronted with a living system, whose design is mysterious and whose optimizations are obscure, it is not easy task- as Professor Stein reminds us- to arrive at an answer to the question he posed in his target article. The paper is an important contribution chiefly for two reasons. The first, which we shall mention only in passing, is that it is likely to provide much debate on what the controlled variables might be; moreover, it will force those who find this a burning issue to put their cards on the table. The second reason, and, we feel, the more important one, it that the paper poses a question, “What muscle variable(s) does the nervous system control...?” whose very nature raises questions about the strategies neuroscience uses to investigate problems of control and coordination of movement. In our commentary we will focus on some of the (not so) implicit assumptions behind the question posed by Stein; if nothing else, we hope to heighten sensitivity to some of the issues involved and (perhaps) to force neuroscientists to consider their epistemology.
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