College 7: Motor skills Flashcards
What 2 types of movements belong to automated movements?
Postural & Rhytmic movements
What is the function of a muscle spindle?
Respond to the stretch of a muscle -> providing information from the muscle to the brain
What is the function of a Golgi tendon organ?
Control the intensity/strength of a muscle -> provinding information from the muscle to the brain
What 2 types of neurons are lower motor neurons?
And what is their function?
- Alpha motor neuron = cause contractions of the skeletal muscles
- Gamma motor neuron = adjust the tension in the muscle spindle fibers so they can detect a stretch
What is the spinal motor circuit of a reflex?
Sensory signal via dorsal root in the spinal cord -> crossing interneuron -> to muscle via ventral root = to trigger a counterbalancing contraction to counteract the stretch of the reflex
What are central pattern generators?
The neurons in the spinal cord, they influence rhytmic behaviors like walking
How does the corticospinal tract travel?
M1 -> corona radiata -> internal capsule -> cerebral peduncle -> crossing over at medulla -> pyramidal decussation -> spinal cord
What do influence/coordinate these non-corticospinal motor control pathways?
- Rubrospinal tract
- Vestibulospinal tract
- Tectospinal tract
- Reticulospinal tract
- Rubrospinal tract = influences the limbs
- Vestibulospinal tract = influences balance
- Tectospinal tract = coordinates movements in order to capture/avoid targets
- Reticulospinal tract = coordinates startle and escape reflexes
What areas are mostly involved in motor control? (4x)
Primary motor cortex (M1)
Premotor cortex (PMC)
Supplementary motor cortex
Presupplementary motor cortex
What is population coding?
A population of neurons will fire at higher rates when the direction is closer to their preferred direction
Where are mirror neurons found?
In the PMC, connecting regions of the superior temporal sulcus
What are the following areas responsible for?
- M1
- PMC
- Lateral prefronal cortex
- Frontopolar cortex
- M1 = simple movements
- PMC = complex actions
- Lateral prefronal cortex = cognitive and planning contributions
- Frontopolar cortex = higher-order learning goals (long-term/multi-tasking)
Which system controls movements guided by external cues?
Lateral motor system
Which system becomes active when internal signals are needed?
Medial motor system
What is akinetic mutism?
And what can cause this?
No spontaneous behavior seems to occur anymore
Caused by lesions in the medial motor system (can also cause the opposite: over-automatically behavior)
Of what 3 layers does the cerebellum consists?
Granule layer
Purkinje layer
Molecular layer (outer layer)
What is forward modeling?
Combining sensory and motor information to predict where an object will be at some future point in time (for smooth coordination of the cerebellum)
What are the following recursive loop circuits responsible for?
- Oculomotor loop
- Orbitofrontal loop
- Oculomotor loop = eye movements
2. Orbitofrontal loop = evaluation of reward
What definition is ‘knowing the location of your body in space’?
Proprioception
What is manual dexterity?
The ability to use your hands in a killfull/coordinated way
What is locomotion?
The ability to move from one place to another
What is motor skill acquisition?
Practice/experience leading to a relatively permanent change in an individual’s capability for skilled motor performance
What 3 phases does motor skill acquisition has?
- Early/cognitive phase = declarative, verbal (self-talk) learning (explicit)
- Associative phase = detect and eliminate errors, linking components for smoothness
- Autonomous phase = more automatic performance/skill has developed, without the need for much conscious attention (implicit)
What is sequence learning?
The acquisition of new movement patterns via long-term practice -> small actions combined to a sequence of movements
