"Motor control is the regulation of movement in organisms that possess a nervous system."
Overview of the different motor systems, including the somatic and autonomic nervous systems. Detailed discussion on how each system controls movement and maintains homeostasis.
Neurons and Glia: The building blocks of the nervous system, neurons and glia play critical roles in motor function.
Action Potentials: The triggering of an electrical impulse along a neuron's membrane that leads to muscle movement.
Synaptic Transmission: Communication between neurons across synapses, which can either excite or inhibit neuron function.
Reflexes: Rapid, involuntary muscle contractions in response to stimuli, and their neural pathways in the somatic and autonomic nervous systems.
Sensory Processing: The conversion of sensory stimuli into neural impulses and the pathways that convey sensory information to the motor cortex.
Upper Motor Neurons: Neurons that originate in the brain and connect with lower motor neurons to control movement.
Lower Motor Neurons: Neurons that originate in the spinal cord and activate muscle fibers to cause movement.
Spinal Reflexes: Involuntary muscular responses driven by spinal cord circuits that act without signals from the brain.
Basal Ganglia: A group of brain structures that play a role in regulating voluntary movements, learning, and habit formation.
Cerebellum: A brain structure that controls movement, balance, and coordination by regulating and modulating motor signaling from the cortex.
Motor Cortex: A region of the brain that plays a key role in voluntary motor control, planning, and execution of movements.
Muscle Mechanics: The mechanical properties of muscle fibers and the ways in which they contract and produce force.
Muscle Control and Feedback: The mechanisms by which the brain and nervous system control muscle activity and how feedback from sensory receptors affects motor output.
Developmental Motor Control: The sequence of motor milestones in infancy and childhood and the neural and physiological changes that occur.
Motor Disorders: Diseases and conditions that affect the motor system, including Parkinson's disease, cerebral palsy, and spinal cord injuries.
Somatic motor system: This system controls voluntary movements of skeletal muscles in the body.
Autonomic motor system: This system controls involuntary actions such as heart rate, breathing, and digestion.
Sympathetic nervous system: This system prepares the body for stress or action by increasing heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration.
Parasympathetic nervous system: This system helps the body conserve energy and rest by slowing down heart rate, breathing, and digestion.
Enteric nervous system: This system controls the digestive system and regulates gastrointestinal functions such as digestion, absorption, and motility.
Extrapyramidal motor system: This system helps regulate posture, balance, and gross motor movements that are not under voluntary control.
Pyramidal motor system: This system controls fine motor movements and voluntary muscle control, including speech and hand gestures.
Basal ganglia motor system: This system plays a critical role in movement initiation, modulation, and control, and is involved in a wide range of functions, including learning, motivation, and reward.
Spinocerebellar motor system: This system provides feedback to the cerebellum about the position of the limbs and trunk to maintain posture, balance and coordination.
Reflex arcs: This system controls involuntary, rapid movements in response to specific stimuli such as the withdrawal reflex in response to painful stimuli.
"Motor control includes reflexes as well as directed movement."
"To control movement, the nervous system must integrate multimodal sensory information and elicit the necessary signals to recruit muscles to carry out a goal."
"The nervous system integrates multimodal sensory information from the external world as well as proprioception."
"This pathway spans many disciplines, including multisensory integration, signal processing, coordination, biomechanics, and cognition."
"The computational challenges are often discussed under the term sensorimotor control."
"Successful motor control is crucial to interacting with the world to carry out goals as well as for posture, balance, and stability."
"Some researchers, such as Daniel Wolpert and Randy Flanagan, argue that motor control is the reason brains exist at all."
"To carry out a goal."
"Proprioception is integrated by the nervous system to carry out a goal."
"Multisensory integration is crucial for the nervous system to regulate movement."
"The necessary signals are elicited by the nervous system to recruit muscles and carry out a goal."
"Coordination, biomechanics, multisensory integration, and cognition play a role in motor control."
"The computational challenges are often discussed under the term sensorimotor control."
"Successful motor control is crucial for interacting with the world, achieving goals, maintaining posture, balance, and stability."
"Some researchers argue that motor control is the reason brains exist at all."
"The nervous system regulates movement by integrating sensory information and eliciting signals for muscle recruitment."
"Motor control includes both reflexes and directed movement."
"Carrying out goals refers to the ability to perform actions in order to achieve desired outcomes."
"Motor control spans disciplines such as multisensory integration, signal processing, coordination, biomechanics, and cognition."