Motor Control - Disorders of Movement Flashcards
What motor disturbances can be seen in disease?
(give 6)
- Weakness
- Spasticity
- Rigidity
- Ataxia
- Akinesia
- Apraxia
(usually a patient will show more than one of these symptoms)
What is meant by ‘weakness’?
- This is not the same as having weak force production in muscles
- Inability to produce forceful movements under voluntary control
- It can be a weak but active muscle response
What is meant by spasticity?
- Too much tonic (basal) drive to the muscles
- This causes unwanted contractions
- Therefore causing joints to be fully flexed/extended
- It can apply to both agonists & antagonists
- It causes co-contraction spasticity –> making joints very rigid –> giving spastic rigidity
What is ataxia?
- Cerebellum Damage
- Loss of Coordination
- The sequence of muscle activation/contraction is messed up –> thus the cooperation between agonist & antagonist is faulty
- There is a decomposition of movement
What is meant by akinesia?
- Absence of Movement
(little/no movement)
What is bradykinesia?
Low Level of Movement
What is apraxia?
-
Inability to produce purposeful movements (e.g. can move arms but with no purpose)
(i. e. cannot make a specific grasp)
What is praxia?
Movement with purpose
In terms of time, what effect will a vascular occlusion or haemohrrage have?
- Immediate Paralysis
In terms of time, what effect will a tumour have?
- Slowly progressive symptoms & signs
- Tumour progresses slowly so motor deficit will be slowly progressive
What is the confusion caused with small ministrokes?
- Their effects can accumulate
- They are more difficult to establish
- Usually though there is one major event which is critical that causes a major loss which is obvious
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In terms of time, how do neurodegenerative losses (e.g. Parkinson’s) present?
- Slow & progressive symptoms
Where are flexors & extensors generally located in the spinal cord?
- Flexors –> near the centre (central canal)
- Extensors –> further out (edges)
Image showing Rexed Laminas.
What four tracts does the cerebellum access & influence?
- Corticospinal Tract
- Rubrospinal Tract
- Reticulospinal Tract
- Vestibulospinal Tract
What does the basal ganglia mainly influence?
- Corticospinal / Pyramidal Tract
What is the vestibulospinal tract important for?
- Balance Control
- Posture Control
(Pathologies here will cause problems with posture & balance)
What is the reticulospinal tract important for?
Locomotion
What is an important point to note in general about the signals between neurones in the NS?
- There is always a basal/tonic firing rate/drive
- Signals are simply modulated on top to increase/decrease activity with excitatory/inhibitory flow
Why is it important there is always a tonic drive to the muscles?
- So small motor units can contract –> all the time
- Giving the muscle tone
Why do big neurones not fire in the background at basal/tonic levels?
- Size Principal
- Bigger drive needed to stimulate them as they have low resistance
- Tonic levels only sufficient for small motor units which have high resistance
- More drive can cause the bigger ones to contract
What are the two functionally distinct divisions in nervous system pathology?
- Lower Motoneurone (LMN)
- Upper Motoneurone (UMN)
They produce entirely different symptoms & consequences
What is a lower motoneurone lesion usually caused by?
- Alpha Motor Neurone Damage
What is an upper motoneurone lesion usually caused by?
- Motor Cortex
- Corticospinal Tract
What damage corresponds (can cause) a Lower Motoneurone Lesion?
- Alpha motoneurones (usually this)
- Muscle Spindle
- Primary Afferents (1a afferents)
- Type II Afferents (for sustained movement)
- Myelination of the Efferent/Afferent Signals
- Spinal Cord
- Alpha-Motoneurons
- Motoneuron axons
- Neuromuscular junction
- Muscle (itself)
(think of the whole reflex arc and anything involved in it)
What are the effects of a lower motor neurone lesion (LMN)?
- Strength of Muscle Stretch Reflex Decrease (or even absent)
- Weak Voluntary Movements (cannot move limbs)
- Muscle weakness
All the components of the reflex arc can cause LMNL thus can cause these symptoms
In terms of afferent signals, what are you testing with a muscle jerk reflex?
- 1a Afferents
- NOT the Type II Afferents –> as these measure sustained movements
- The tendon reflex is dynamic therefore it is testing the 1a afferents & not Type II
What happens if a muscle loses its innervation?
Muscle Atrophy
What needs to happen next after you have determined a LMNL?
- Further tests to assess which part of reflex arc has the problem
Give 5 causes of a LMN Lesion, which have been indicated with weak Muscle Stretch Reflex.
- Peripheral Neuropathies
- Injury in Dorsal/Ventral Root (e.g. herniated vertebral disc)
- Poliomyelitis (virus kills motoneurons)
- Myasthenia Gravis (decreased neuromuscular transmission)
- Muscular Dystrophy (primary muscle disease)
What is peripheral neuropathy?
- Damage to Nerve in the Periphery
What occurs in Myasthenia Gravis?
Decreased neuromuscular transmission (due to reduced post-synaptic AChRs)
What is a common cause of LMNL?
- Injury to Dorsal/Ventral Root
- This is usually caused by a herniated vertebral disc
What is a common phrase used by those with an Upper Motoneurone Lesion (UMNL)?
- ‘I cannot move’
- ‘I am too tired to move’
What occurs in an Upper Motoneurone Lesion?
- System that tries to generate movements voluntarily (primarily the corticospinal tract but maybe reticulospinal tract) –> causes weak movements which are tiring to produce
What occurs when you perform a Knee Jerk Reflex on someone with an UMNL?
Unusually brisk reflex (rapid & strong)
Why does the reflex jerk on UMNL do what it does?
- Voluntary Control via Corticospinal Tract is Lost
- It cannot generate voluntary movement
- However reflex system works better (no descending inhibition)
Describe the pathway of the corticospinal tract.
- Excitatory axons from Motor Cortex
- Come down the spinal cord –> synapse with motor neurones & interneurones which control movements
- These are turned off –> so no voluntary movements
- Causes a decrease of excitatory movements –> thus less likely to depolarise
Why does the reflex get stronger in UMNL?
- Reflex circuits have a lot of inhibitory interneurones which synapse onto it (renshaw cells 1a & 1b)
- There are more inhibitory motoneurones than excitatory motoneurones
- These all get their drive from the motor cortex
- Therefore, the motor cortex sends tonic instructions to excitatory & inhibitory interneurones –> excitation of motoneurones based on net sum balance
- If both stop (due to more inhibitory stopping) –> there is a net gain in excitation –> thus motoneurones more excitable –> closer to threshold –> thus brisk reflex
Generally, why does UMNL cause a brisk reflex?
- Due to overall disinhibitory effect of loss the descending command
- Causing a net loss of inhibitory commands –> thus increased excitability
- This raises excitability + changes property of some intrinsic spinal reflexes
Does muscle wasting take place in UMNL?
- No
- There is no denervation –> thus no atrophy
What are the effects of an UMN lesion?
- (Spastic) Weakness
- Voluntary Movements are weak & tiring to produce
- Unusually brisk (exaggerated) muscle stretch reflexes - spasticity
- No signs of muscle denervation (no wasting) - Normal Tone
What does UMN lesions do in terms of FRA-driven reflexes?
Reverse some FRA-driven reflexes
Where can damage take place to cause an Upper Motoneurone Lesion?
Involves the:
- Corticospinal Tract (always)
- (with or without) the rubrospinal tract
- (with or without) the reticulospinal tract
Damage may be in:
- Motor Cortex
- Any part of the descending corticospinal tract
How does an UMNL affect muscle?
- Does not affect individual muscles
- Muscles affected as groups
This can involve whole limbs or whole sides of the body
Which places do not produce the same pattern of deficits as an UMNL?
Other parts of the motor system that do not produce the UMNL pattern of deficit:
- Basal Ganglia
- Cerebellum
Why is an UMNL non-specific?
- Affecrs anywhere below the level of the lesion in the corticospinal tract (or even M1)
Clinical signs of an UMNL.
- Spastic Weakness
- Normal Muscle Tone (no/little atrophy)
- Not entirely rigid
- Vigirous activation of 1a afferents (very quick - part of dynamic system)
- Exaggerated dynamic stretch reflex
- Joint is not rigid (weakness not co-contraction)
(If patient’s arm is pulled back there is a jerk pull back reflex as arm is extended - this is an exaggerated dynamic stretch reflex - spastic weakness0
What is spasticity of gait formally called?
Scissor Walking
What does scissor walking involve (spasticity of gait)?
- Flexed hips & knees (patient leans forwards)
- Plantar flexed ankles
- Tone increases in agonists & antagonists leads to limb stiffness
- Inward rotation of each lower limb
- Walking by circumduction at the hip (giving swivelling movement)
What is important when making a normal locomotory gait?
- Hip flexion
- Ankle flexion
- Knee flexion
Why do they use scissor walking pattern?
- Point on Point rotation of the legs
- Limitations in walking trajectory
- Solution is to swivel with trunk movements with relatively stiff legs