Topic 8 Final Exam

Question 1

1. What are central constraints?

Answer 1

Central Constraints:

Cortical organization
* Humans have refined organization in cortical regions involving movement
(primary motor cortex, somatosensory cortex etc.)

Question 2

What are peripheral constraints?

Answer 2

Peripheral Constraints:

• Identify structure that influences movements
• Hand/finger movements:
• Soft tissues in web spaces between fingers

Question 3

2. Name and describe the five constraints on somatotopic organization that were presented.

Answer 3

1. Convergent output from a large M1 territory controls particular body
   joint or muscle
2. Divergent output of many single M1 neurons reaches multiple spinal
   MN pools
3. Horizontal connections interlink the cortex throughout a major body
   part region
4. Partial inactivation of major region affects many smaller body parts
   simultaneously
5. Plasticity limits the extent to which a specific body part can be assigned
   to a specific part of the cortex

Question 4

3. Explain the Cortical Piano metaphor for cortical arrangement and how it explains the production
   of complex voluntary movements.

Answer 4

A there is only one of every key for different structures in the body

B is how our brain is actually arranged!

The B piano makes more sense because it is more efficient because there are more keys in each letter - more redundancy

Question 5

4. Explain an example of a peripheral constraint and how it would influence a specific movement.

Answer 5

Peripheral constraint: interconnections between tendons of some muscles or extrinsic multi tendoned finger muscles (easier to move multiple fingers instead of just one because of certain muscles and tendon connections)

Question 6

5. Describe what is needed to plan a reaching movement. What happens if a movement is
   interrupted?

Answer 6

CNS always plans movements in a visually straight line

CNS plans - current limb state - position wanted - what to do to get there (location of target)

If movement is interrupted it will run through the process again

Question 7

6. Explain the prism adaptation study. What do studies on prism adaptation tell us about planning
   reaches and upper limb control?

Answer 7

The prism study changes their visual field by making the object look its to the left more, when it was straight in front of them.

From here they realized the object isnt there when they reach for it so they move their muscles the exact same way where it was the first time they reached

Post - test - Pre - test = After - effect –>ADAPTATION

They recalibrate or adapt to signal