This is the first of a three-part blog on
developmental movement. My next entry will be on robot movement. The
third on robot-human movement interaction...
Human Movement
Earthly organisms are highly relational; each
animal and plant species has evolved complex systems of communication
through movement and language, to assist in its survival. These systems
are often interdependent; in many cases multiple species share similar
vocabularies for interpreting environmental cues at basic levels.
Nowhere is this truer than in the fight-flight-freeze systems that all
species use to respond to potential and real threats. The ability to
respond to danger cues in the environment through these systems has in
part determined the survivability of every organism living today. Some
animal species have evolved systems of intercommunication that feature
more sophisticated responses to social and environmental cues. This is
particularly (though not exclusively) true of humans.
Human learning through relationships has been described as sociogenic.
The complex theory of sociogenesis is described well in this paper
published by the Max Planck Institute. Entitled ‘Sociogenesis and
Cooperation’ it outlines thoughts on collective intentionality of groups
of humans and animals and how these arise from social environments. The
article does a far better job than I could in defining the features of
this phenomenon:
The ability to interpret and respond to
environmental cues is automatic in most species through hard-wired
reflexes (involuntary spontaneous movements in response to a stimulus).
Examples of these in human infants are grasping and sucking. The
development of a more sophisticated system of movement language,
however, depends on a lengthy developmental process in humans. Human
movement ‘programming-language’ has evolved over hundreds of thousands
of years and contains within it patterns of learning from other animals,
insects, and less complex organisms from which we are descended. This
programming-language (genetics), is not a blueprint for later behavior,
but requires a complex and stable series of environmental cues
(feedback) in order to express a full range of behavioral outcomes over
time. This is the gene-environment system.
The human nervous system facilitates the
development of complex social communication via its central nervous
system (CNS) and specifically, its brain architecture. A recently
discovered feature of human brain architecture that has received
widespread scientific attention are ‘mirror neurons.’ Mirror neurons are
brain cells that facilitate human social development through
brain-environment interactions beginning in infancy. When an infant
looks into its mother’s face and smiles and the mother smiles back,
mirror neurons are activated. This ‘mirror interaction’ encourages the
baby to smile more in order to receive a warm positive response from its
caregiver on whom it is dependant for its survival.
Adult human social interactions are often marked by
smooth, nuanced movements that are often employed largely unconsciously
to communicate mood states, messages, and stances that are not
expressed through verbal language. Mastery of the range of such
movements (which are required to communicate effectively with other
humans throughout life) can be thwarted early in life by abusive or
dysfunctional nurturing patterns, certain early environmental
conditions, and organic brain conditions such as autism. Severe, chronic
and early abuse can produce delayed and frustrated motor development in
otherwise ‘normally’ developing children (I use the quotes because so
much of this information is new and under-tested--also scientific bias
and labels used to describe what is 'normal' and 'normal functioning').
Psychiatrist Bruce Perry who works with severely traumatized children
suffering from early neglect, relates the difficulty of trying to teach
nuanced social skills to those whose brains were not properly stimulated
by caregivers in his book, The Boy Who was Raised as a Dog. Helping one
child, ‘Connor’ who was trying to learn how to relate to his adolescent
peers” Dr Perry relates:
“Body language and social cues were
unintelligible to Connor: they simply didn’t register. Working with
Connor, it hit me over and over again how sophisticated and subtle much
of human communication is. I told him for example, that people find eye
contact engaging during a social interaction, so it is important to look
at people when you listen to them and when you talk to them. He agreed
to try it, but this resulted in him staring fixedly at me, just as he’d
formerly fixed his gaze on the floor. I said, “Well, you don’t want to
look at people all the time.” “Well, when do I look at them?” He wanted
to know exactly how long to look.”
Fear responses, reflexes, and other less subtle
movement patterns, are examples of motor structures we share with lower
animals, insects, and less complex organisms. These are triggered by
responses from much older parts of our brain such as the brain stem and
lower and midbrain regions. Hyper vigilance, startle response, and other
primitive responses to danger and stressors are those we share with
many beings. They represent some of the foundations of movement itself.
Body-Mind Centering, a therapeutic practice that
focuses on developmental movement, draws its theory from the study of
motor development. Here is an article from the organization's website.
You can find articles on reflexes, age-appropriate movement patterns,
touch-therapy, etc...here:
In my next blog entry I will chat about how the
first animatronic robots, and how their programming resulted in movement
that resembled our insect ancestors...
