There are a number of such models concerned with the control of movements and postures. The oldest, and one that incorporates the cortical inhibition (of reflexes) hypothesis, involves a distinction between higher (e.g., cortical) and lower (e.g., sub-cortical) levels of control. In this, and subsequent neurologically-based models, the main assumption is that movement planning and execution are controlled by one of more cortical centers. Then there are engineering-based models that include close-loop or open-loop (or both) forms of control as well as motor programs that are a source of prestructured sets of motor commands issued at higher levels and sent to low centers for execution in terms of movement and postural control. Such models rely heavily on variants of information-processing theories, theories that have been the butt of criticisms made by adherents of dynamical systems approaches. Such approaches tend not to subscribe to notions of hierarchical control, but rather heterarchical (or distributed) forms of control
See Closed-loop and open-loop control, Cortical inhibition hypothesis, Dynamical systems approaches, Hierarchy, Information-processing theories, Motor control, Multilayered, Postural control, Reflexology