ABSTRACT
Dr. P.R. Burgess organized a Society for Neuroscience symposium in 1992 to discuss his contention that “You can only control what you sense.” The question is, what is being controlled in locomotion and which of the many sensory inputs to the CNS are the main players? There are numerous ways of answering this, each implying a different level of control and different neural systems. For example, at one level, that which is controlled is support and movement of the body with respect to uneven terrain. The control problem at this level is to cope with support surfaces of variable orientation, consistency, stability, friction, and compliance. At another level, that which is controlled is movement of the body with respect to a moving target (e.g., as in the hunting of prey). At this level, the problem is to anticipate future positions of the target and to control and adapt one’s own trajectory accordingly, taking into account obstacles and hazards in the way.
