From Boreli (1680) and Bell (1826) to the Dynamics of Action and Perception

Abstract

Recent developments in the study of action and perception have their roots in the contemplations of Giovanni Borelli, a 17th-century Italian mathematician and physicist, and Sir Charles Bell, and 18th-century English physiologist and neuroanatomist. When Borelli looked at muscle and its functional achievements, he saw dynamics with its attendant laws and principles; when Bell looked at muscle, he saw information about muscular states and a smart mechanism for its measurement. Research and theory on the dynamics of coordination and locomotion, and on the perceptual achievements of the haptic subsystem of dynamic touch, are providing affirmation of these visions of Borelli and Bell.