The Motor System Flashcards
Give examples of voluntary motor activities
Walking, talking and running.
Goal-directed is
Conscious, explicit and controlled.
Habits are
unconscious, implicit and automatic.
Name involuntary actions:
eye movement, facial expressions, jaw, tongue, postural muscles throughout trunk.
Name a sophisticated system developed throughout evolution
Defence
Different levels of sensory input have different effects on ..
motor output
Give an overview of the sensorimotor system
Primary motor cortex - command to move leg/arm
Brain stem motor nuclei
Spinal motor circuits
M2 - motor planning e.g planning to move your arm is in your secondary motor cortex
Association cortex - higher level planning- perceptual context for movement.
What systems make up perceptual context and what is the sequence
Visual system
Auditory system -> motor plan (M2) -> M1 primary
Memory system motor cortex
Final stage: Movement implementation
What other brain part is associated with perceptual context?
Basal ganglia
What is the function of the basal ganglia?
Circuit of structures decides what your going to do and stick to those decisions.
What is the function of the cerebellum?
How to do it- fine tuning action to make precise adjustments in a movement.
What is motor control governed by?
Upper and lower motor neurons.
The lower motor neuron has…
a cell body in brainstem (or spine) and projects to the muscle that you want to switch on or off.
How are the upper motor neurons and lower motor neurons connected?
The upper motor neurons originate in higher centres and project down to meet the lower motor neurons, synapse and goes to muscle.
How much body weight do muscles make up?
40%
What are the three types of muscles?
Cardiac
Smooth (blood flow/ gut)
Skeletal (attached to skeleton does movement)
Where is the smallest skeletal muscle found?
stapediv in the inner ear that alters volume and dampens loud sound.
Where is the largest skeletal muscle?
In bum
Where is the strongest skeletal muscle?
in jaw
Where is the hardest working skeletal muscle?
heart
eye muscles
neck
What happens to muscles over time and after training?
Number of muscle fibres vary, seems genetically determined.
In two people where one person is skinny and one is muscly what difference would this be of the muscle fibre?
Type of muscle fibre could be different.
Muscle size and strength refers to what?
Cross sectional area of individual muscle fibres and different proportions of different types of fibre.
Muscle can only
contract or relax
The activation of muscle fibres is
all or none.
What arrangement are muscles in?
Antagonistic arrangement combined co-ordinated action.
Recruitment of muscle fibres-
fast/slow twitch, small and large motor units.
State the process of muscle contraction
Thick filament myosin heads attach to thin filaments then bends releases, touches it extends the neck. Involves magnesium/calcium ions and ATP energy.
Descibe the function of the motor unit…
Switches on activates all muscle fibres at only single alpha motor neuron and all muscle fibres it innervates. Controls small number of muscle fibres deliver small amount of force. Different motor neurons innervate different numbers of muscle fibres- fewer fibres means greater movement resolution - those innervating finger tips and tongue.
The motor unit is the final common pathway for motor control.
What happens when alpha motor neuron activates?
Depolarizes and causes contraction of all fibres in that unit.
Muscle fibres innervated by each unit are…
the same type of fibre and often distributed through the muscle to provide evenly distributed force and may help reduce effect of damage.
What does it mean for more motor units that fire?
More fibres contract more power.
State the features of a motor pool..
All the lower motor neurons that innervate single muscle
The motor pool contains both the alpha and gamma motor neurons
Motor pools are often arranged in a rod like shape within the central horn of the spinal column.
Where is white matter?
Fibre tracts by axons
Where is grey matter?
Cell bodies
Where does sensory input go?
Through dorsal root.
Where does motor output go?
Through ventral root.
Where are alpha motor neurons arranged?
Innervate mid line parts of body are arranged near centre
Outer part for cell bodies
What is the process of sensing in muscles?
Cell bodies project out of ventral horn go to muscle, sensory information coming in from dorsal horn synapse onto the motor neurons. Central neurons also project up to the brain, the project to lower motor neurons. Motor command going down sensory information going up.