These results suggest that the CNS has the ability to create optimal sets of efficient behaviors by optimizing the size of the synergy space at the appropriate region through interacting with the environment. The results on automatic posture response experiments show that SSI and SCI are positively correlated with the balance skill of the participants, and they are tunable by behavior training. Two indices were introduced in this study, one is the synergy stability index (SSI) that indicates the region of the synergy space, the other is the synergy coordination index (SCI) that indicates the size of the synergy space. In this study, we investigated the mechanism the CNS may use to define the appropriate region and size of the synergy space when performing skilled behavior. The synergy space defines the suitable combinations of muscles, and time-dependent variables vary in lower-dimensional space to control behaviors. The notion of muscle synergy, which was introduced to divide muscle activations into a lower-dimensional synergy space and time-dependent variables, is a suitable tool relevant to the discussion of this issue. One effective method of choosing muscle combinations is to create a set containing the muscle combinations of only efficient behaviors, and then to choose combinations from that set. The computational mechanism of choosing muscle combinations, however, remains a long-standing challenge. This flexibility in muscle combinations allows for efficient behaviors to be generated in daily life. Muscle redundancy allows the central nervous system (CNS) to choose a suitable combination of muscles from a number of options.

Muscle synergy model