Bernstein’s “desired future” and physics of human movement

Bernstein’s concept of “desired future” has been recently developed within two approaches to the neural control of movement. Within the computational approach, this concept led to the ideas of predictive (direct) internal models. Within the physical approach, based on the referent configuration hypothesis and uncontrolled manifold hypothesis, this concept is reflected in two types of anticipatory motor phenomena, leading to net changes in task-specific performance variables and leading to changes in their stability. Typical examples are anticipatory postural adjustments and anticipatory synergy adjustments, respectively. Both may be seen as reflections of neural processes aimed at achieving a future state effectively given the external conditions and planned actions.