(S1W1) Neurophysiology part 1

Question 1

What is motor control?

Answer 1

• “the study of how movement is controlled”
• ability to regulate movement
• i.e. what information is a person using, what decisions are they making and how are they programming their muscles to perform movement

Question 2

Why do we develop brains?

(use sea squirt example)

Answer 2

• argument to be made that motor control is the whole reason that we have a brain
• purpose of our brain is to control movement
• only way we can interact with anything in the world is through movement
• sea squirts travel the ocean for years, then settle in coral reef
• once settled, eat their own brain for energy
• once not moving, don’t need brain

Question 3

What is meant by degrees of freedom?

Answer 3

• the number of parameters of the system that may vary independently

Question 4

What are Bernstein’s stages of motor learning?

Answer 4

1. Freezing degrees of freedom
2. Releasing and reorganising
3. Exploiting mechanical properties

Question 5

Explain stage 1 of Bernstein’s stages of motor learning.

Answer 5

• freezing degrees of freedom
• just focusing on optimising one thing
• e.g. shooting at a target with a gun - goal is to minimise variability of pistol tip by locking elbow and wrist and only moving shoulder

Question 6

Explain stage 2 of Bernstein’s stages of motor learning

Answer 6

• releasing and reorganising
• now releasing other joints and adjusting
• higher level performers have greater variability whereas lower level performers freeze some joints

Question 7

Explain stage 3 of Bernstein’s stages of motor learning

Answer 7

• exploiting mechanical properties
• example: golf swing
• model of golf swing with no force or muscles, just falling under gravity
• this model looks very similar to real life golf swing
• a skilled performer is partly just exploiting mechanical principles of how their arms would fall naturally