Learning a Novel Coordination; Things Get Interesting

Other coordination posts are here.

This will be a brief post to follow on from the last, in which I reviewed the early learning studies of Kelso & Zanone that led to the dynamic pattern hypothesis.

Learning a Novel Coordination - The Dynamic Pattern Hypothesis

Other coordination posts are here.

Recall this image:

The HKB potential function, ~1Hz

This basic layout is supposed to describe an intrinsic state of affairs, namely that only 0°and 180°are stable coordinations (+/- 180° are identical except for which limb is lagging and which is leading). If you look at this function, you will see that potential energy is a maximum at +/90; this suggests that 90°is a maximally unstable coordination (i.e. it takes the most energy to maintain and is susceptible to perturbations which will make behaviour 'run off' towards one or other attractor). This is indeed the case, empirically; people can do it but fail to respond to the inevitable errors that accumulate and they lose the coordination very rapidly.

The question then is: can you learn to move at 90°? Is this dynamic pattern modifiable by experience?