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Motor Control
Motor control is the regulation of movements in organisms that possess a nervous system. Motor control includes conscious voluntary movements, subconscious muscle memory and involuntary reflexes, as well as instinctual taxes. To control movement, the nervous system must integrate multimodal sensory information (both from the external world as well as proprioception) and elicit the necessary signals to recruit muscles to carry out a goal. This pathway spans many disciplines, including multisensory integration, signal processing, coordination, biomechanics, and cognition, and 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 (mostly neuroscientists studying movement, such as Daniel Wolpert and Randy Flanagan) argue that motor control is the reason brains exist at all. Neural control ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motility
Motility is the ability of an organism to move independently using metabolism, metabolic energy. This biological concept encompasses movement at various levels, from whole organisms to cells and subcellular components. Motility is observed in animals, microorganisms, and even some plant structures, playing crucial roles in activities such as foraging, reproduction, and cellular functions. It is genetically determined but can be influenced by environmental factors. In multicellular organisms, motility is facilitated by systems like the Nervous system, nervous and Human musculoskeletal system, musculoskeletal systems, while at the cellular level, it involves mechanisms such as amoeboid movement and flagellar propulsion. These cellular movements can be directed by external stimuli, a phenomenon known as taxis. Examples include chemotaxis (movement along chemical gradients) and phototaxis (movement in response to light). Motility also includes physiological processes like gastroi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Randy Flanagan
John Randall "Randy" Flanagan (born 8 January 1960) is a Canadian neuroscientist, who has made important contributions to the neuroscience of sensorimotor control. From 2006 he has been a professor of psychology at Queen's University. Education Flanagan completed a B.P.E. in Physical Education at the University of Alberta in 1983 and an MA in Physical Education at McGill University, where he also completed a PhD in Psychology in 1992 with David Ostry. Career Flanagan pursued psychology as a postdoctoral research A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary acade ...er (1992–1994) at the MRC Applied Psychology Unit in Cambridge with Alan Wing. He then joined the faculty of Teachers College, Columbia University in 1994 before moving to thDepartment of Psychologyat Queen's Un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthropod
Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an arthropod exoskeleton, exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated (Metamerism (biology), metameric) Segmentation (biology), segments, and paired jointed appendages. In order to keep growing, they must go through stages of moulting, a process by which they shed their exoskeleton to reveal a new one. They form an extremely diverse group of up to ten million species. Haemolymph is the analogue of blood for most arthropods. An arthropod has an open circulatory system, with a body cavity called a haemocoel through which haemolymph circulates to the interior Organ (anatomy), organs. Like their exteriors, the internal organs of arthropods are generally built of repeated segments. They have ladder-like nervous systems, with paired Anatomical terms of location#Dorsal and ventral, ventral Ventral nerve cord, nerve cord ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hox Gene
Hox genes, a subset of homeobox, homeobox genes, are a gene cluster, group of related genes that Evolutionary developmental biology, specify regions of the body plan of an embryo along the craniocaudal axis, head-tail axis of animals. Hox proteins encode and specify the characteristics of 'position', ensuring that the correct structures form in the correct places of the body. For example, Hox genes in insects specify which appendages form on a segment (for example, legs, antennae, and wings in fruit flies), and Hox genes in vertebrates specify the types and shape of vertebrae that will form. In segmented animals, Hox proteins thus confer segmental or positional identity, but do not form the actual segments themselves. Studies on Hox genes in ciliated larvae have shown they are only expressed in future adult tissues. In larvae with gradual metamorphosis the Hox genes are activated in tissues of the larval body, generally in the trunk region, that will be maintained through metamorp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kinesiology
Kinesiology () is the scientific study of human body movement. Kinesiology addresses physiological, anatomical, Biomechanics, biomechanical, Pathology, pathological, neuropsychological principles and mechanisms of movement. Applications of kinesiology to human health include biomechanics and orthopedics; strength and Classical conditioning, conditioning; sport psychology; motor control; skill acquisition and motor learning; methods of Rehabilitation psychology, rehabilitation, such as Physical therapy, physical and occupational therapy; and sport and exercise physiology. Studies of human and animal motion include measures from motion tracking systems, electrophysiology of muscle and brain activity, various methods for monitoring physiological function, and other behavioral and cognitive research techniques. Basics Kinesiology studies the science of human movement, performance, and function by applying the fundamental sciences of cell biology, molecular biology, chemistry, bioch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neural Control Of Limb Stiffness
As humans move through their environment, they must change the stiffness of their joints in order to effectively interact with their surroundings. Stiffness is the degree to a which an object resists deformation when subjected to a known force. This idea is also referred to as impedance, however, sometimes the idea of deformation under a given load is discussed under the term "compliance" which is the opposite of stiffness (defined as the amount an object deforms under a certain known load). In order to effectively interact with their environment, humans must adjust the stiffness of their limbs. This is accomplished via the co-contraction of antagonistic muscle groups. Humans use neural control along with the mechanical constraints of the body to adjust this stiffness as the body performs various tasks. It has been shown that humans change the stiffness of their limbs as they perform tasks such as hopping, performing accurate reaching tasks, or running on different surfaces. While t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henneman's Size Principle
Henneman’s size principle describes relationships between properties of motor neurons and the muscle fibers they innervate and thus control, which together are called motor units. Motor neurons with large cell bodies tend to innervate fast-twitch, high-force, less fatigue-resistant muscle fibers, whereas motor neurons with small cell bodies tend to innervate slow-twitch, low-force, fatigue-resistant muscle fibers. In order to contract a particular muscle, motor neurons with small cell bodies are recruited (i.e. begin to fire action potentials) before motor neurons with large cell bodies. It was proposed by Elwood Henneman. History At the time of Henneman’s initial study of motor neuron recruitment, it was known that neurons varied greatly in size, that is in the diameter and extent of the dendritic arbor, size of the soma, and diameter of axon. However, the functional significance of neuron size was not yet known. In 1965, Henneman and colleagues published five papers de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elwood Henneman
Elwood Henneman (1915 – 22 February 1996) was an American neurophysiologist who studied the properties of vertebrate motor neurons. Biography and Research Henneman received his bachelor's degree from Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1937. In 1943 he finished his medical studies at McGill University in Montreal. During a research fellowship at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, Henneman and colleague, Vernon Mountcastle, showed that tactile information about the extremities is represented in an orderly map in the ventrolateral thalamus of the cat and monkey. Further research positions followed, including at the Royal Victorian Hospital and at the Illinois Neuropsychiatric Institute (NPI) in Chicago. At NPI, Henneman discovered that the drug Mephenesin (Myensin) inhibits interneurons in the spinal cord and thus causes muscle relaxation. This discovery helped lead to the development of muscle relaxant drugs. Of greater impact for the scientific communi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motor Unit Recruitment
Motor unit recruitment is the activation of additional motor units to accomplish an increase in contractile strength in a muscle. A motor unit consists of one motor neuron and all of the muscle fibers it stimulates. All muscles consist of a number of motor units and the fibers belonging to a motor unit are dispersed and intermingle amongst fibers of other units. The muscle fibers belonging to one motor unit can be spread throughout part, or most of the entire muscle, depending on the number of fibers and size of the muscle. When a motor neuron is activated, all of the muscle fibers innervated by the motor neuron are stimulated and contract. The activation of one motor neuron will result in a weak but distributed muscle contraction. The activation of more motor neurons will result in more muscle fibers being activated, and therefore a stronger muscle contraction. Motor unit recruitment is a measure of how many motor neurons are activated in a particular muscle, and therefore is a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rectus Femoris Muscle
The rectus femoris muscle is one of the four quadriceps muscles of the human body. The others are the vastus medialis, the vastus intermedius (deep to the rectus femoris), and the vastus lateralis. All four parts of the quadriceps muscle attach to the patella (knee cap) by the quadriceps tendon. The rectus femoris is situated in the middle of the front of the thigh; it is fusiform in shape, and its superficial fibers are arranged in a bipenniform manner, the deep fibers running straight () down to the deep aponeurosis. Its functions are to flex the thigh at the hip joint and to extend the leg at the knee joint. Structure It arises by two tendons: one, the anterior or straight, from the anterior inferior iliac spine; the other, the posterior or reflected, from a groove above the rim of the acetabulum. The two unite at an acute angle and spread into an aponeurosis that is prolonged downward on the anterior surface of the muscle, and from this the muscular fibers arise. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motor Unit
In biology, a motor unit is made up of a motor neuron and all of the skeletal muscle fibers innervated by the neuron's axon terminals, including the neuromuscular junctions between the neuron and the fibres. Groups of motor units often work together as a motor pool to coordinate the contractions of a single muscle. The concept was proposed by Charles Scott Sherrington. Usually muscle fibers in a motor unit are of the same fiber type. When a motor unit is activated, all of its fibers contract. In vertebrates, the force of a muscle contraction is controlled by the number of activated motor units. The number of muscle fibers within each unit can vary within a particular muscle and even more from muscle to muscle: the muscles that act on the largest body masses have motor units that contain more muscle fibers, whereas smaller muscles contain fewer muscle fibers in each motor unit. For instance, thigh muscles can have a thousand fibers in each unit, while extraocular muscles mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Myocyte
A muscle cell, also known as a myocyte, is a mature contractile Cell (biology), cell in the muscle of an animal. In humans and other vertebrates there are three types: skeletal muscle, skeletal, smooth muscle, smooth, and Cardiac muscle, cardiac (cardiomyocytes). A skeletal muscle cell is long and threadlike with multinucleated, many nuclei and is called a ''muscle fiber''. Muscle cells develop from embryonic precursor cells called myoblasts. Skeletal muscle cells form by cell fusion, fusion of myoblasts to produce multinucleated cells (syncytium, syncytia) in a process known as myogenesis. Skeletal muscle cells and cardiac muscle cells both contain myofibrils and sarcomeres and form a striated muscle tissue. Cardiac muscle cells form the cardiac muscle in the walls of the heart chambers, and have a single central Cell nucleus, nucleus. Cardiac muscle cells are joined to neighboring cells by intercalated discs, and when joined in a visible unit they are described as a ''cardiac m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
