Motor control is the process by which humans and animals use their brain / cognition to activate and coordinate the muscles and limbs involved in the performance of a motor skill. Fundamentally, it is the integration of sensory information, both on the world and on the current state of the body, to determine the appropriate set of muscular forces and joint activations to generate some movement or desired action. This process requires a cooperative interaction between the central nervous system and the musculoskeletal system and, therefore, is a problem of information processing, coordination, mechanics, physics and cognition. Successful motor control is crucial to interacting with the world, not only to determine action capabilities, but also to regulate balance and stability.
The organization and production of the movement is a complex problem, so the study of motor control has been approached from a wide range of disciplines, including psychology, cognitive science, biomechanics and neuroscience. Although the modern study of motor control is an increasingly interdisciplinary field, research questions have historically been defined as physiological or psychological, depending on whether the focus is on physical and biological properties or organizational and structural rules. The areas of study related to motor control are motor coordination, motor learning, signal processing and perceptual control theory.