SELF | Deep Dives
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SELF | Deep Dives
Movement Mastery: The Hidden Intelligence of Our Bodies | Ep. 02
The extraordinary ways our bodies coordinate movement reveals a hidden world of complexity beneath seemingly effortless actions, from the remarkable dexterity of our hands to the sophisticated feedback systems that make precise control possible.
• Understanding the "richness of mobility" in the human body and the contrast between upper limbs (designed for manipulation) and lower limbs (designed for stability)
• The uniqueness of human hands with 15 joints, 20 degrees of freedom, and an opposable thumb
• Bernstein's identification of three major challenges in movement control: distribution of attention, excessive degrees of freedom, and muscle elasticity
• The critical role of sensory feedback in controlling movement through continuous corrections
• How different senses contribute to movement coordination and can compensate for each other
• Simple experiments to experience how sensory feedback affects movement precision
• The complex interplay between the brain, senses, and muscles that makes coordinated movement possible
We encourage everyone to pay attention to their own movements in the coming days—notice the subtle ways you're using your senses to guide your actions and appreciate the incredible complexity of the human body.
Okay, so think about this for a sec, just like wiggle your fingers Easy, right, like you don't even think about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's totally automatic.
Speaker 1:But under the hood it's this crazy system right Like levers and pulleys and a control center in your brain going nuts.
Speaker 2:It's wild when you really break it down.
Speaker 1:And that's what we're diving into today.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like how do we even move at all?
Speaker 2:Precisely.
Speaker 1:And we've got this awesome guide for our deep dive. Nikolai Bernstein His work on dexterity is mind-blowing.
Speaker 2:Absolutely groundbreaking stuff. So whether you're someone who loves explaining the human body or you're just dipping your toes into this world of knowledge, you're in the right spot.
Speaker 1:Definitely no need for a PhD here.
Speaker 2:Exactly we're going to unpack these core principles of motor control how our bodies do all this amazing stuff.
Speaker 1:Seemingly without even trying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it feels effortless right. Until you really think about how ridiculously complex it is.
Speaker 1:Totally so. Our mission today we're going to appreciate, like the richness of our mobility.
Speaker 2:And how our bodies pull it off, like what are the challenges Of our mobility?
Speaker 1:And how our bodies pull it off, Like. What are the challenges, Right, what are the hurdles that our body has to overcome every time we decide to just like reach for a coffee cup?
Speaker 2:Exactly. It's way more interesting than you might think.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's start with this idea of richness, of mobility.
Speaker 2:Right Jump, right in.
Speaker 1:Bernstein really hammers this home Right. Like our whole musculoskeletal system, it's insanely flexible.
Speaker 2:And we just take it for granted.
Speaker 1:Think about your spine for a second. Yeah, your backbone 25 little bones all linked together.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And they let you bend and twist in all these ways.
Speaker 2:It's like a chain, but a super flexible one.
Speaker 1:Right, we're not quite contortionists, but still.
Speaker 2:Pretty impressive. I mean, it keeps our head steady.
Speaker 1:Which is important, since that's where our brain is.
Speaker 2:Right and points it where we need it to go.
Speaker 1:So it's not just about flexibility for flexibility's sake.
Speaker 2:It's all about function, and that's where the comparison between our upper and lower limbs gets super interesting.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, bernstein talks about that a lot.
Speaker 2:It's this stark contrast, like think about your arms, they pretty much just hang from your muscles, yeah, and your shoulder blade.
Speaker 1:It's not even directly connected to your ribs.
Speaker 2:Right, it's just kind of floating there, held in place by all this soft tissue.
Speaker 1:And that looseness, that's what gives us this huge range of motion.
Speaker 2:You can reach in all directions, rotate, swing. It's amazing.
Speaker 1:And then there are legs Totally different story.
Speaker 2:Build for stability.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. The knee joint alone, it's a marvel.
Speaker 2:You can bend it almost 140 degrees. You know when you're actively squatting.
Speaker 1:Right, and even more if someone like bends it for you passively.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like when you're stretching.
Speaker 1:And then there's the ankle. Bernstein compares it to a universal joint, which I love.
Speaker 2:It's a great analogy.
Speaker 1:Because it gives your foot this wiggle room. You know up and down, side to side.
Speaker 2:Yeah, think about all the ways your foot needs to move when you're walking or running on uneven ground.
Speaker 1:So it's designed for support, obviously for carrying all our weight, but it's not as actively mobile as, say, a cat's paw.
Speaker 2:Right, which is much more flexible and adaptable.
Speaker 1:Totally different needs right.
Speaker 2:And that's evolution for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's tailored our bodies to do what we need them to do.
Speaker 2:Exactly so our legs. They prioritize stability for standing and walking.
Speaker 1:And our arms. They're all about manipulating objects.
Speaker 2:Interacting with our environment, and that's where Bernstein gets super excited about our forearms and hands.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, let's talk about hands, because here's where it gets like mind-blowingly cool.
Speaker 2:Right Buckle up.
Speaker 1:We have this totally unique ability us and apes, that is.
Speaker 2:Right, we're special.
Speaker 1:We can rotate our forearm and hand Like think about turning a doorknob.
Speaker 2:Or using a screwdriver.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that twisting motion that's called pronation and supination.
Speaker 2:And we can do it over a range of like 180 degrees.
Speaker 1:Which is something a horse or a dog just can't do.
Speaker 2:Try getting your dog to use a screwdriver. It's not going to happen.
Speaker 1:Exactly. And then you add in the wrist joint, which is way more mobile than people realize. It bends up and down, side to side.
Speaker 2:It almost acts like a third ball and socket joint.
Speaker 1:Right after the shoulder and the elbow, it's like why not another one? It's brilliant.
Speaker 2:And when you put all those joints together, your hand can orient itself in any way you can imagine.
Speaker 1:It's crazy, I can hold onto this microphone.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:But I still have all this movement at my elbow and shoulder.
Speaker 2:It's like this built-in redundancy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, overlap in the system, so adaptable.
Speaker 2:And then, of course, there's the hand itself.
Speaker 1:The hand. Bernstein calls it a fine mosaic of 27 bones, which is a beautiful way to put it.
Speaker 2:Very poetic.
Speaker 1:Right, and then there are 12 movable joints just in the wrist and palm.
Speaker 2:You start to wonder like why so many parts?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it seems excessive, but then if you've ever tried to pick up something small when your hand is numb, oh, I hate that feeling. You realize like, oh that's, you need all those little bones and joints for a flexible grip.
Speaker 2:It's so intricate.
Speaker 1:And then the star of the show right the opposable thumb.
Speaker 2:The MVP of the hand.
Speaker 1:It lets us grasp things, hold them securely.
Speaker 2:And it can adjust to almost any shape.
Speaker 1:It's the reason we can use tools right do all this amazing stuff.
Speaker 2:Which brings up a fascinating point. Bernstein actually quantifies this. Okay numbers time. We have 15 joints in each hand and 20 degrees of freedom just in one hand.
Speaker 1:That is mind-blowing.
Speaker 2:It is, and what sets us apart, our ability to use those fingers with purpose.
Speaker 1:To adapt our movements on the fly Exactly.
Speaker 2:And the wrist. It acts like this flexible base. It truly makes the human hand a brilliant tool, as Bernstein puts it.
Speaker 1:Okay, but it's not just our limbs, right.
Speaker 2:Right, where is he going next?
Speaker 1:Well, Bernstein shifts gears a bit. He talks about other parts of the body that we might not think of as being super dexterous.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm intrigued.
Speaker 1:The tongue and the eyes.
Speaker 2:What.
Speaker 1:The tongue, yeah, the tongue.
Speaker 2:Okay, I never thought my tongue is like a dexterity champion.
Speaker 1:Well, Bernstein describes it as a lump of striated muscular fibers that go in all directions.
Speaker 2:That sounds messy.
Speaker 1:It kind of is, but even in animals that don't make a ton of sounds, the tongue has a crazy amount of mobility.
Speaker 2:Okay, I guess that makes sense.
Speaker 1:But in humans, that mobility combined with all those tiny muscles we can control, it's what allows us to speak.
Speaker 2:Right to form all those intricate sounds.
Speaker 1:And there are even sterilized parts of our brain, like Broca's area that controls speech.
Speaker 2:So it's not just about the muscles, it's about the neural control too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, parrots might be able to mimic sounds, but they don't have that same complex brain wiring.
Speaker 2:Fascinating.
Speaker 1:And then the eyes.
Speaker 2:Okay, the eyes make more sense to me as being mobile.
Speaker 1:Right, but Bernstein points out that we often underestimate their amazing mobility.
Speaker 2:Okay, fair enough.
Speaker 1:Think about it You've got six pairs of muscles, just for moving your eyes around.
Speaker 2:Right to track things.
Speaker 1:Exactly. Then there are two pairs for focusing, two for controlling pupil size and two more for blinking.
Speaker 2:So that's like 24 muscles in total.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they're working together constantly, mostly without us even realizing it.
Speaker 2:It's like a symphony of tiny movements.
Speaker 1:Right, and Bernstein, he has this funny image. He's like imagine trying to tell someone you love them, but you have to consciously control all those eye muscles at the same time.
Speaker 2:Oh man, that would be a disaster.
Speaker 1:You'd be like I love your left eyebrow.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and it really highlights how much of this control is automatic.
Speaker 1:We don't think about it, it just happens.
Speaker 2:And Bernstein quotes Sekinoff, who says we do not just see with our eyes, but we look.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 2:It's such a powerful statement.
Speaker 1:It's like we're actively engaging with the world through our vision.
Speaker 2:Our eyes are constantly moving, focusing, scanning, working together. It's amazing. Ok, so we've established that we have this crazy flexible movement system.
Speaker 1:Right, but now we're going to ask the big question.
Speaker 2:The elephant in the room.
Speaker 1:How do we control all of this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it seems like it would be a nightmare.
Speaker 1:And Bernstein lays out some major challenges.
Speaker 2:Hit me with them.
Speaker 1:Okay, challenge number one Distribution of attention.
Speaker 2:What does that even mean?
Speaker 1:Well, when you have all these joints and muscles, all capable of moving in so many ways, Right, and they are. How does your brain keep up?
Speaker 2:Yeah, especially during complex movements.
Speaker 1:Like walking or throwing a ball.
Speaker 2:It's like juggling a thousand tennis balls at once.
Speaker 1:And Bernstein gives this powerful example People who've had brain injuries.
Speaker 2:Oh no.
Speaker 1:They can sometimes lose the automatic control of complex movements.
Speaker 2:So they have to think about every little thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, something as simple as lifting their arm might take tons of concentration.
Speaker 2:And once it's up, they might not be able to bring it down without like really focusing on it.
Speaker 1:It shows how much is happening behind the scenes that we never even realize.
Speaker 2:It's kind of terrifying, honestly.
Speaker 1:Right, but Bernstein says that the second problem is even more fundamental.
Speaker 2:Okay, lay it on me.
Speaker 1:Excessive degrees of freedom. He calls them kinematic degrees of freedom, kinematic.
Speaker 2:So that's about movement, right.
Speaker 1:And this is where he compares our bodies to machines, which I find super interesting.
Speaker 2:Always a good analogy.
Speaker 1:He says that even the most complex machines like those giant printing presses or diesel engines, yeah, those things are crazy complicated. They usually only operate with one degree of freedom.
Speaker 2:What does that even mean in a machine?
Speaker 1:It means that each part moves along a very specific path.
Speaker 2:So no wiggle room.
Speaker 1:No wiggle room, it's forced movement.
Speaker 2:And Bernstein makes a big deal about the difference between that and having two or three degrees of freedom.
Speaker 1:Huge difference. Think about drawing with a pen. Okay, the tip of the pen. It has two degrees of freedom.
Speaker 2:Right, it can move up and down and side to side.
Speaker 1:And suddenly, instead of just one line, you have infinite possibilities.
Speaker 2:You can draw anything.
Speaker 1:And if you add a third degree of freedom, like imagine your fingertip just floating in space. Whoa that's trippy. You can move it anywhere within that space.
Speaker 2:That's a lot of freedom.
Speaker 1:And that's why engineers, they hate extra degrees of freedom.
Speaker 2:Makes sense.
Speaker 1:Because it makes controlling things so much harder.
Speaker 2:Yeah, even machines that make choices, like those sorting machines or vending machines that recognize coins.
Speaker 1:They usually only have a few options.
Speaker 2:Right. It's not like they're making decisions with infinite possibilities.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:Okay, so what about the human body?
Speaker 1:Well, Bernstein says we have this boundless generosity of degrees of freedom.
Speaker 2:Like we're swimming in them.
Speaker 1:We have dozens, maybe even hundreds, across all our joints.
Speaker 2:So how do we not just like flail around constantly?
Speaker 1:That's the million dollar question. Yeah, bernstein's answer is that each of those potential movements needs to be tamed and bridled.
Speaker 2:I love that freezing.
Speaker 1:Right, and how do we do that With our sensory systems? Okay so our senses are like the reins on those wild horses Exactly. They're constantly monitoring what's happening and sending feedback to the brain, so that the brain can make adjustments.
Speaker 2:Fascinating. But what happens when those reins break?
Speaker 1:Well, bernstein uses this condition, called Taves dorsalis, to illustrate that.
Speaker 2:What is that?
Speaker 1:It's a condition that damages the sensory pathways that give us our sense of body position.
Speaker 2:So, like you don't know where your limbs are without looking at them, Exactly, he calls it the muscular-articular sense. And this Taves dorsalis thing, it messes that up.
Speaker 1:Big time Bernstein described this simple test Close your eyes and have someone move your arm around. Okay yeah, you can usually tell exactly what they're doing.
Speaker 2:Right, you can feel it.
Speaker 1:But if your arm has ever fallen asleep, you know that feeling when you lose that sense of position.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it's super weird, like your arm is there, but you can't really feel where it is.
Speaker 1:And that's kind of what it's like for people with Taves dorsalis.
Speaker 2:All the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it can be really debilitating. They can't stand up straight with their eyes closed.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:Their movements become really uncoordinated.
Speaker 2:So it's not paralysis.
Speaker 1:No, the muscles still work, but the control is messed up.
Speaker 2:It's like the brain can't communicate with the body properly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Bernstein has this great analogy. He says it's like the coachman has lost control of the horses.
Speaker 2:Oh, I like that.
Speaker 1:The coachman is the sensory feedback system. And the horses are the limbs Exactly, and without that feedback, the horses just run wild.
Speaker 2:Okay, so having too many degrees of freedom can be a bad thing.
Speaker 1:Right, it seems that way.
Speaker 2:But then Bernstein flips it on its head.
Speaker 1:Right. He suggests that all those extra degrees of freedom, they might actually be an advantage.
Speaker 2:Okay, now I'm really confused.
Speaker 1:I know right, but think about it. He says that experienced craftspeople they often prefer more flexible tools.
Speaker 2:Yeah, even if they're harder to use at first.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and he compares a bicycle to a tricycle.
Speaker 2:A bike is way harder to learn to ride.
Speaker 1:But once you get it it's more maneuverable. More stable too.
Speaker 2:And he even talks about musical instruments like a fretless violin.
Speaker 1:It's way harder to play than a regular violin.
Speaker 2:Because you have to be so precise with your finger placement.
Speaker 1:But the sounds you can create are incredible.
Speaker 2:It's like nature gave us all this potential.
Speaker 1:And it's up to us to master it.
Speaker 2:I love that. It's so empowering.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that's two major challenges down, but Bernstein has one more for us.
Speaker 2:Bring it on.
Speaker 1:And this one is all about muscle elasticity. He calls it dynamic degrees of freedom.
Speaker 2:Dynamic. So that's about forces, right.
Speaker 1:Exactly, our muscles are made of these elastic fibers.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And they can only do one thing. Contract.
Speaker 2:They can pull, but they can't push.
Speaker 1:And they always work in pairs.
Speaker 2:Right, like the biceps and triceps.
Speaker 1:One contracts, the other stretches.
Speaker 2:And Bernstein uses some really cool analogies to explain how this makes things complicated.
Speaker 1:Okay, analogy time. I love a good analogy.
Speaker 2:He says imagine a car engine where the pistons are connected to the crankshaft by springs.
Speaker 1:Springs instead of solid rods.
Speaker 2:Yeah, imagine that the engine would be a mess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the movement wouldn't be smooth at all it would be jerky, unpredictable and it would be affected by all sorts of external factors.
Speaker 2:Like going uphill or downhill.
Speaker 1:Right, or if the car was carrying a heavy load.
Speaker 2:And then he has another one, a sewing machine, where the needle is connected to the motor by a rubber rod.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm picturing it.
Speaker 2:If you were sewing thick fabric, the needle might jam.
Speaker 1:Because the rubber rod would stretch.
Speaker 2:And then when you removed the fabric.
Speaker 1:The needle would spring back really fast.
Speaker 2:It would be a disaster.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you wouldn't be able to control the sketching at all.
Speaker 2:And Bernstein, he actually suggests an experiment you can try at home.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love these. Okay, what is it?
Speaker 2:Attach a weight to your belt using rubber bands.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm following so far.
Speaker 2:And then try to draw shapes accurately.
Speaker 1:That sounds tricky it is.
Speaker 2:It's really hard to control the movement because those rubber bands are constantly stretching and rebounding.
Speaker 1:And it gets even harder if you close your eyes.
Speaker 2:Because you lose that visual feedback.
Speaker 1:Right, which is kind of like what happens with Thieb's dorsalis.
Speaker 2:It all ties back together.
Speaker 1:It does, and Bernstein argues that this elasticity in our muscles it's another form of excessive degrees of freedom.
Speaker 2:But this time it's not about the range of motion.
Speaker 1:It's about the forces involved.
Speaker 2:The dynamic aspect of movement.
Speaker 1:And he says that overcoming this type of excessive freedom it's just as challenging as overcoming the kinematic kind.
Speaker 2:So, whether it's about how far our joints can move or about how our muscles respond to forces, our bodies have to solve the same fundamental problem.
Speaker 1:Exactly. And that brings us to a really crucial question what exactly is motor coordination?
Speaker 2:Yeah, after all this talk about challenges and degrees of freedom, we need a definition and Bernstein delivers.
Speaker 1:He says that motor coordination is overcoming excessive degrees of freedom of our movement organs, that is, turning the movement organs into controllable systems.
Speaker 2:So it's about taming those wild horses.
Speaker 1:Exactly Making our bodies into instruments we can actually play.
Speaker 2:And how do we do that?
Speaker 1:Well, Bernstein introduces this awesome principle. He calls it the principle of sensory corrections.
Speaker 2:Okay, hit me with it.
Speaker 1:And he uses this fantastic analogy. He says imagine you're firing a cannon.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm picturing it.
Speaker 1:The first few shots, they probably won't hit the target perfectly.
Speaker 2:Right. There are all sorts of factors that affect the projectory.
Speaker 1:Wind, gravity, the angle of the cannon.
Speaker 2:So what do you do?
Speaker 1:Well, you have an observer at the target. They report back where the shell landed.
Speaker 2:Okay, so they're giving feedback.
Speaker 1:And the artillery crew. They use that feedback to adjust their aim.
Speaker 2:And the next shot is more accurate.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and Bernstein says that our bodies work in a similar way.
Speaker 2:So our senses are like the observer.
Speaker 1:Precisely. They're constantly sending information back to the brain about how a movement is going.
Speaker 2:So touch sight balance.
Speaker 1:All of it, it's like a continuous stream of feedback.
Speaker 2:And that means our senses are just as involved in our movements as our muscles are.
Speaker 1:Totally. They're not just passive observers.
Speaker 2:They're active participants.
Speaker 1:And every time a muscle contracts it triggers sensory feedback which informs the brain, which then sends refined motor commands back to the muscles. It's a loop, A continuous reflex loop, and if any part of that loop is damaged, arm movements get messed up.
Speaker 2:Like with Tabes dorsalis.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and Bernstein has some fun experiments. You can try to really feel this in action.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love a good experiment.
Speaker 1:Try writing a few words or drawing a simple shape while you're looking at your hand.
Speaker 2:Okay, easy enough.
Speaker 1:Now try again without looking. Ooh, that's harder you probably noticed that it's much less precise.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my writing gets all wobbly.
Speaker 1:And he has another one. Try drawing a bunch of crosses inside circles.
Speaker 2:Without looking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's tough right. Yeah, I'm all over the place. It shows how much we rely on our vision for accurate movements.
Speaker 2:And he points out that when your hands are cold, fine motor tasks become harder.
Speaker 1:Not because your muscles are weaker.
Speaker 2:But because your sense of touch is less sensitive.
Speaker 1:Exactly. And your muscular, articular sense, that sense of joint position is also dulled by the cold.
Speaker 2:So it's not just about the muscles themselves, it's about the whole system.
Speaker 1:And I love this example he gives about trying to tie a necktie while looking in a mirror.
Speaker 2:I've tried that. It's infuriating.
Speaker 1:It's so much harder than just doing it by feel.
Speaker 2:Right, it's like your brain gets confused by the extra visual information.
Speaker 1:It shows that sometimes actively using a sense can actually interfere with well-learned coordination.
Speaker 2:So crazy.
Speaker 1:So Bernstein emphasizes that our muscular, articular sense is primary for most movements.
Speaker 2:That sense of body position.
Speaker 1:And all those sensory receptors in our muscles, tendons and joints. They form what's called the proprioceptive system.
Speaker 2:It's like our sense of self-sensing.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 2:And it's constantly sending signals to the brain about the position of our limbs, the angles of our joints, the forces our muscles are generating.
Speaker 1:It's like an internal map of our body.
Speaker 2:And then there's the vestibular system in our inner ear.
Speaker 1:Right, our sense of balance. It acts like a central reference point for all this proprioceptive information. It tells us where our head is in space, which then helps us understand where the rest of our body is.
Speaker 2:And if that system malfunctions, like with Tabes or Salus, the motor coordination problems are really severe.
Speaker 1:It's amazing how interconnected it all is.
Speaker 2:It is. But Bernstein also makes it clear that other senses can step in when needed Right. They can kind of take over some of the propriocept is.
Speaker 1:But Bernstein also makes it clear that other senses can step in when needed Right. They can kind of take over some of the proprioceptor responsibilities.
Speaker 2:So if our sense of touch is impaired, we might rely more on vision.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and vision is crucial for accurate hand movements.
Speaker 2:And for aiming when we throw something.
Speaker 1:Right, try throwing a dart with your eyes closed.
Speaker 2:Not going to hit the target.
Speaker 1:And Bernstein points out that hearing is important for some movements too.
Speaker 2:Like for musicians.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're listening for precise timing.
Speaker 2:And mechanics might listen to the sounds of an engine to diagnose problems.
Speaker 1:And even smell can be a dominant coordinating sense for some animals.
Speaker 2:I never thought about that.
Speaker 1:It's true. And then there's touch.
Speaker 2:Which we've already talked about a bit.
Speaker 1:But it's worth emphasizing how important it is for precise movements.
Speaker 2:Surgeons sculptors, tailors.
Speaker 1:They all rely heavily on their sense of touch.
Speaker 2:And people who are blind. They use touch to navigate the world.
Speaker 1:It's incredible how adaptable our bodies are.
Speaker 2:And Bernstein suggests that this interplay of senses, how different senses contribute to different movements.
Speaker 1:It could be a way to classify movements physiologically.
Speaker 2:That's a really cool idea.
Speaker 1:It is, and it's something we could definitely delve into in a future deep dive.
Speaker 2:Definitely. Okay so let's wrap this up. What did we learn today? Well, the main takeaway for me is that moving our bodies is way more complicated than it seems.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not just about muscles contracting.
Speaker 2:It's about this constant interplay between our muscles, our senses and our brain. This intricate dance of coordination and Bernstein's principle of sensory corrections. It really highlights how important feedback is for movement.
Speaker 1:Our brains are constantly making tiny adjustments based on what our senses are telling us.
Speaker 2:It's mind blowing when you think about it.
Speaker 1:And it raises a really interesting question If our brains rely so heavily on sensory feedback, what does that mean for learning new skills?
Speaker 2:Or for recovering from an injury.
Speaker 1:Could we use this knowledge to develop new and better ways to train our bodies?
Speaker 2:Or to help people regain lost function.
Speaker 1:It's something to think about.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and we encourage everyone listening to pay attention to their own movements in the coming days.
Speaker 1:Just notice all the subtle ways you're using your senses to guide your actions.
Speaker 2:And appreciate the incredible complexity and capability of this amazing machine we call the human body.
Speaker 1:I think that's a great note to end on. Thanks for joining us for this deep dive. It's been a pleasure. We'll see you next.