Unit 4 Flashcards
*Upper Motor Neurons
- Neurons in the motor system that command lower motor neurons
- Originate (cell bodies in) the brain
*Lower Motor Neurons
- Directly command muscle contraction (innervate muscle)
- Last neuron in pathway
- Originate (cell bodies) in ventral horn of SC
*Skeletal Muscle
- Controlled by somatic motor system (voluntary control)
- Striated
*Cardiac Muscle, Smooth Muscle
- Controlled by autonomic motor system (involuntary control)
- Controls peristalsis, blood pressure and flow
- Cardiac= striated, smooth= not striated
*Anatomy
muscles–> muscle fiber/muscle cell–> myofibrils
- Motor neurons innervate muscle cells
- Muscle fibers contract and fire APs
- Depolarization causes release of calcium filled vesicles–> induce contraction of sarcomeres
*Muscle Innveration steps/ How a lower motor neuron causes a mucle fiber/cell to contract
- Lower motor neurons release ACh
- ACh produces large EPSP in muscle fiber
- EPSP evokes muscle action potential
- Action potential triggers Ca2+ release
- Fiber contracts
- Ca2+ reuptake
- Fiber relaxes
*Alpha Motor Neurons
- A type of lower motor neuron that innervates skeletal muscles directly
- One AMN per muscle fiber, but can innervate multiple fibers
- Smaller motor units= finer control
*Motor Unit
-Motor neuron and all the muscle fibers it innverates
*Motor Neuron Pool
-All the AMNs that innervate a single muscle
*Types of Motor Units
- Slow twitch (red muscle)
2. Fast twitch (white muscle)
Slow Twitch (Red Muscle)
- Large number of mitochondria and enzymes (myoglobin)
- Slow to contract and slow to fatigue
- Can sustain contraction
- Least force, longer time
*Fast Twitch (White Muscle)
-Fewer mitochondria
-Anaerobic metabolism
-Contract and fatigue rapidly
Types: fast fatiguable and fast-fatigue resistant
*Fast Fatiguable
- Highest force
- Smallest ammount of time
*Fast-Fatigue resistant
-Medium force and time
*Control of contraction by Alpha Motor Neurons
-Reserve maximal contraction for when needed
Control force by:
1. Varying firing rate of motor neurons
2. Recruiting additional symergistic motor units
-Recruiting more motor units that contract in that area
*Muscle Spindles
- Specialized skeletal muscle fibers contained in fiberous capsules ( stretch receptors, intrafusal fibers)
- Parallel w/ muscle
- Middle third= swollen, where group 1a sensory axons wrap around muscle fibers
- **Proprioceptors= body awareness
- **Detect changes in muscle length
- Contractile fibers
- *Shorten, but don’t contribute much force
- *Innvervated by gamma motor neurons (LMNs)
Group 1a Sensory Neurons
- Muscle spindle receptors
- Thickest myelinated axons in body
- Largest and fastest conductance
- Enter SC via dorsal roots, branch and innervate interneurons and AMNs in ventral horn
- One 1a axon synapses on every AMN in motor pool for same muscle it originated in
- **Fire less frequently when contracted
*Stretch Reflex
- Alpha motor neuron fires from 1a stimulation (extrafusal)
- Gamma Motor neuron fires from 1a stimulation (intrafusal)
- *Only in SC, not brain
- When a muscle is pulled, it tends to pull back (myotatic reflex= muscle stretch)
- **Protective
- Sensory feedback loop from muscle
- **As muscle is stretch, firing rate increases
*Gamma Motor Neurons
- -Bulk of muscle mass= Extrafusal muscle fibers, innervated by alpha motor neurons
- -Muscle spindles= intrafusal muscle fibers, innervated by gamma motor neurons
*Muscle movement
- Muscles move joints by pulling
- Flexors= bend/contract
- Extensors= extend muscle
*Reciprocal Inhibition
-Contraction of one muscle set accompanied by relaxation (inhibition) of antagonist muscle
*3 types of input to Lower Motor Neurons
- information from UMNs originating in brain (voluntary movement)
- Sensory info from muscle spindles (muscle length)
- Interneurons from SC (generate spinal programs)
*Spinal Interneurons
- Most input to AMNs mediated by spinal interneurons
- *Excitatory use glutamate
- *Inhibitory use glycine
- Synaptic input to spinal interneurons
1. Primary sensory axons
2. Descending axons from brain
3. Collaterals of LMN axons
4. Other interneurons - Curcuits= responsible for executinf stereotyped and reflexive movements of body
*Flexor Withdrawal Reflex
- Doesn’t require concious input
- Complex reflex arc used to withdraw limb from aversive stimulus
- Depends on how painful the stimulus is and where it occurs
- Triggered by delta A axons that branch to neighboring spinal segments (nociceptors)
- *Slower than strerch reflex bcuz delta A axons smaller than 1a axons