Routledge Reach-to-Grasp Behavior: Brain, Behavior, and Modelling Across the Life Span (Frontiers of Developmental Science)

Reaching for objects in our surroundings is an everyday activity that most humans perform seamlessly a hundred times a day. It is nonetheless a complex behavior that requires the perception of objects’ features, action selection, movement planning, multi-joint coordination, force regulation, and the integration of all of these properties during the actions themselves to meet the successful demands of extremely varied task goals. Even though reach-to-grasp behavior has been studied for decades, it has, in recent years, become a particularly growing area of multidisciplinary research because of its crucial role in activities of daily living and broad range of applications to other fields, including physical rehabilitation, prosthetics, and robotics. This volume brings together novel and exciting research that sheds light into the complex sensory-motor processes involved in the selection and production of reach-to-grasp behaviors. It also offers a unique life-span and multidisciplinary perspective on the development and multiple processes involved in the formation of reach-to-grasp. It covers recent and exciting discoveries from the fields of developmental psychology and learning sciences, neurophysiology and brain sciences, movement sciences, and the dynamic field of developmental robotics, which has become a very active applied field relying on biologically inspired models. This volume is a rich and valuable resource for students and professionals in all of these research fields, as well as cognitive sciences, rehabilitation, and other applied sciences. Review "What we do with our bodies plays a role in―creates, selects―sensory information for learning and organizes brain networks within a single task, changing the very organization of the brain at multiple levels. This volume, focused on reaching behavior and rich with data and new insights, provides lessons for all who are interested in human sensory-motor systems and the large role they play in human perception and cognition." – Linda B. Smith, Indiana University, USA "The study of hand movements offers a unique window into brain mechanisms underlying motor control. The number and complexity of controlled movement parameters allow us to address issues ranging from bottom-up sensorimotor transformations to top-down high-order cognitive processing. This volume promises the reader a broad and up-to-date overview of these mechanisms, and it was a great pleasure to read a book that keeps its promise." – Marco Davare, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium "The present volume discusses new and exciting discoveries related to reaching and grasping from several different perspectives including developmental studies, neurophysiological and functional analyses, and their application to the dynamic field of developmental robotics. I recommend the reading of it to anyone interested in manual behaviour." - Claes von Hofsten, Uppsala University, Sweden About the Author Daniela Corbetta is a Professor of Developmental Psychology and the Director of the Infant Perception-Action Laboratory at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, USA. Marco Santello is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and the Director of the Neural Control of Movement Laboratory at Arizona State University in Tempe, USA.