VIKTOR JIRSA – “Researchers in the field of Coordination Dynamics aim to identify general laws of pattern formation in human movements rather than searching for a locus of movement pattern generation. This approach is inspired by ideas borne by the theory of Dynamic Systems and Self-organization. Over the last two decades a rhythmic movement paradigm has been the dominant experimental task constraint in this...

J. A. SCOTT KELSO – “I thought it might be useful to say a few words about the history of Coordination Dynamics and to take stock of how far we’ve come and where we are going. It’s my hope that as a result of this meeting we can identify gaps requiring further experimental and theoretical research, with the goal of course of understanding the laws, principles and mechanisms of coordination in different...

Coordination comes in many guises and represents one of the most striking, but least understood features of living things. Over the last 20 years or so a new foundation for understanding coordination has emerged called Coordination Dynamics. Grounded in the concepts of self-organization and the tools of nonlinear dynamics, appropriately extended to handle informational aspects of living things, Coordination Dynamics aims to...

In a recent scientific journal article entitled ‘Virtual Partner Interaction (VPI): Exploring Novel Behaviors via Coordination Dynamics’, brain scientists Kelso, de Guzman, Reveley and Tognoli have introduced ‘Virtual Partner Interaction (VPI)’: “a coupled dynamical system for studying real time interaction between a human and a machine. In this proof of concept study, human subjects coordinate...

A considerable amount of evidence and theory suggests that transient, short-lived phase-coupled oscillations within and between specialized areas of the brain provide a mechanism for neural integration. The idea is that these oscillations are coupled or “bound” together into a coherent network when people attend to a stimulus, perceive, remember, think and act. However, information processing in the brain requires a...

J. A. SCOTT KELSO – “The coordination of living things is one of the great mysteries in the science of life. Coordination is in us and all around us. It is everywhere we look, from the coordination among the genes that make us who we are and what we become, to the remarkable coordination among the nerve cells of the brain that allows us to perceive the world, to learn and to remember, to decide and to act. And...

J. A. SCOTT KELSO & DAVID A. ENGSTRØM – have written The Complementary Nature to summarize their research plan. In this book, Kelso and Engstrøm contend that ubiquitous contraries are complementary and propose a comprehensive, empirically-based scientific theory of how the polarized world and the world in between can be reconciled. They nominate the squiggle (~), as the symbolic punctuation for reconciled...