Movement Flashcards
Three categories vertebrate muscles fall into.
Smooth Muscles
Skeletal/Striated Muscle
Cardiac Muscle
Control movement of internal organs; found in the intestines and other organs; consists of long, thin cells.
Smooth Mucle
Control movement of the body in relation to the environment; consist of long cylindrical fibers with stripes.
Skeletal/Striated Muscle
Have properties intermediate those smooth and skeletal muscles; found in the heart; consist of fibers that fuse together at various points; because of these functions, cardiac muscles contract together, not independently.
Cardiac Muscles
A synapse where a motor neuron axon meets a muscle fiber.
Neuromuscular Junction
Opposing set of muscles (flexor: muscle that flexes or raises it; extensor: muscle that extends or straightens)
Antagonistic Muscles
An autoimmune disease, in that the immune system forms antibodies that attack the individual’s own body.
Myasthenia Gravis
Produce fast contractions that fatigue quickly
Fast-Twitch Fibers
Produce less vigorous contractions without fatiguing
Slow-Twitch Fibers
A receptor that detects the position or movement of a part of the body.
Proprioceptor
A receptor parallel to the muscle that responds to a stretch.
Muscle Spindle
Responds to increase in muscle tension; located in the tendons at opposite ends of a muscle; it acts as a brake against excessively vigorous contraction.
Golgi Tendon Organ
Consistent automatic responses to stimuli.
Reflex
Particularly important for complex actions; an area where information from the senses are processed.
Cerebral Cortex
Where all movements are controlled.
Medulla
Has no direct connection to the muscles; some of its axons go to basal ganglia cells, which feedback to control later movements; some go to the brainstem and spinal cord, which have the central pattern generators to control the actual muscle movements.
Primary Motor Cortex
Some neurons respond primarily to visual or somatosensory stimuli, some respond to a complicated mixture of the stimulus and the upcoming response.
Posterior Motor Complex
The main receiving area for touch and other body information.
Primary Somatosensory Cortex
Responds to light, noises, and other sensory signals that lead to a movement.
Prefrontal Cortex
Active during preparations for a movement and somewhat active during the movement itself.
Premotor Cortex
Most active just before a rapid series of movements in a particular order.
Supplementary Cortex
A set of axons from the primary motor cortex and its surround, and from the red nucleus, a midbrain primarily responsible for control of arm muscles.
Dorsolateral Tract
Includes axons from the primary cortex and from many parts of cortex.
Ventromedial Tract
Lack of voluntary movement in part of the body. Caused by the damage to spinal cord motor neuron or their axon.
Paralysis
Loss sensation and voluntary muscle control in both legs. Reflexes remain. Although no messages pass between the brain and the genitals, the genitals still respond reflexively to touch. Paraplegics have no genital sensation but they can still experience orgasm.
Paraplegia
Loss of sensation and muscle control in all four extremities.
Quadriplegia
Loss of sensation and muscle control in the arm and leg on one side.
Hemiplegia
Impaired sensation in the legs and pelvic region, impaired leg reflexes and walking, loss of bladder and bowel movement.
Tabes Dorsalis
Paralysis, caused by virus that damages cell bodies of motor neurons.
Poliomyelitis
Gradual weakness and paralysis, starting with the arms and later spreading to the legs. Both motor neurons and axons from the brain to the motor neurons are destroyed.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Important for motor control, including learned responses. Contains more neurons that the rest of the brain combines, and some of those neurons have broad branching with an enormous number of connections.
Cerebellum
Group of large subcortical structures in the forebrain (caudate nucleus, putamen, and globus pallidus); each of these areas exchanges information with the thalamus and cerebral cortex.
Basal Ganglia
Areas that receive input from the sensory areas of the thalamus and the cerebral cortex.
Caudate Nucleus and Putamen
The output area, sending information to the thalamus, which in return sends it to the motor cortex and the prefrontal cortex.
Globus Pallidus
Characterized by impaired initiation of activity, slow and inaccurate movements, tremor, rigidity, depression, and cognitive deficits.
Parkinson’s Disease
A hereditary condition marked by deterioration of motor control as well as depression, memory, impairment, and other cognitive disorders; age of onset is usually between 30 and 50.
Huntington’s Disease
