Preamble: The meaning of the term referent control.- Running away from KGP informers to neuroscience -- Action and perception in the context of physical laws -- Referent control as a specific form of parametric control of actions: Empirical demonstrations -- Physiological origin and feed-forward nature of referent control -- Different forms of referent control -- Solutions to classical problems in the control of motor actions -- Redundancy problems -- Action-perception coupling -- Afterword: Major lessons and perspectives.

This book provides a long-awaited description of a classic motor control theory of action and perception – referent control. Strictly based on experimental material, this theory places action and perception in the context of physical laws to offer solutions of several classical problems in behavioral neuroscience and neurological pathologies. The author re-visits and refines many basic concepts in behavioral neuroscience, including central pattern generators, reflexes, and motor learning. Further, he provides many examples of how task-specific referent control of action and perception can be accomplished by the nervous system. This information may help researchers design theory-driven experiments that address the question of how actions are controlled and how changes in biomechanical characteristics emerge without pre-programming. This book may be interesting to researchers, students in behavioral neurosciences as well as to a broader audience who want to know how action and perception are accomplished by the nervous system.