The organization of the body’s many components into a controllable behavioral unit in order to achieve an intended goal. It involves many effectors at many levels in motor system. Just from the perspective of biomechanics, coordination has to occur between individual muscles and joints, as well as between limbs. Imagine moving an arm so that the index finger can press a door bell: the number of effectors involves 10 degrees of freedom between shoulder and finger, and the activation of more than 40 muscles to achieve the goal, something that exceeds the three spatial dimensions (or dimensionality) of this movement. There are thus many different ways to achieve the same goal, but how and why the motor system persists in using a narrow or constrained set of solutions to achieve such an everyday outcome is properly understood. It has to coordinate kinematics (spatial dimensions) with kinetics (force). All told, this amount to resolving the degrees of freedom problem, a major hurdle confronting the development of infants and young children in acquiring and mastering everyday actions. Broadly speaking, there are two main types of movement coordination: intra-limb and inter-limb coordination, to which eye-hand coordination can be added. .
See Action, Biomechanical degrees of freedom, Biomechanics, Central pattern generator (CPG), Cerebellum (development), Cerebellum (functions), Coordination, Corticospinal tracts (CST), Coordination, Coordinative structure, Corticospinal tracts (CST), Degrees of freedom (or Bernstein’s problem), Developmental coordination disorder (DCD), Extrapyramidal system, Galloping, Inferior olive (or olivary) nucleus, Kinematics, Kinetics, Learning disability, Motor ability, Motor control, Motor development, Motor milestone, Motor skill, Movement, Perception-action coupling