Control of multimovement coordination: sensorimotor mechanisms in speech motor programming.

The present paper provides some hypotheses concerning the role of sensorimotor mechanisms in the coordination and programming of multimovement behaviors. The primary database is from experiments on the control of speech, a motor behavior that inherently requires multimovement coordination. From these data, it appears that coordination may be implemented by calibrated, sensorimotor actions which couple multiple movements for the accomplishment of common functional goals. The data from speech and select observations in other motor systems also reveal that these sensorimotor linkages are task-dependent and may underlie the intermovement motor equivalence that characterizes many natural motor behaviors. In this context, it is hypothesized also that motor learning may involve the calibration of these intermovement sensorimotor actions. These observations in turn provide some alternative perspectives on the concept of a motor program, primarily suggesting that individual movements and muscle contractions are not wholly prespecified, but shaped by sensorimotor adjustments.