Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Hierarchy of Motor Control

Hierarchy of Motor Control

The hierarchy of motor control refers to the different levels of organization and processing involved in controlling movement in the body. These levels range from higher cortical areas involved in planning and decision-making to lower spinal cord reflexes that respond automatically to external stimuli.

Indirect Motor Pathways

Indirect Motor Pathways

The indirect motor or extrapyramidal pathways originate in the brainstem, the lower portion of the brain that connects it to the spinal cord. They consist of several distinct tracts, each with specialized functions. The four main tracts of the indirect motor pathways are the vestibulospinal tract, the reticulospinal tract, the tectospinal tract, and the rubrospinal tract.
The vestibulospinal tract originates in the vestibular nuclei of the brainstem. The vestibular system detects changes in...

Motor Units

Motor Units

The motor unit is a fundamental component of the neuromuscular system and plays a crucial role in coordinating muscle contractions. It consists of a somatic motor neuron, which connects and controls multiple skeletal muscle fibers, forming a single functional segment. The axon of the motor neuron branches out and establishes synaptic connections known as neuromuscular junctions with individual muscle fibers within the motor unit.
Motor units come in different sizes, with smaller units...

Direct Motor Pathways

Direct Motor Pathways

The direct motor pathways, also known as the pyramidal tracts, are a group of neural pathways that originate in the brain and descend through the spinal cord. They control the voluntary movement of the body. There are two major direct motor pathways: the corticospinal and the corticobulbar tracts.
The corticospinal tract is responsible for the voluntary movement of the limbs and trunk. It originates in the cerebral cortex of the brain and descends through the cerebrum's internal capsule and the...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Supporting long-term engagement in HIV clinical care: Learning from the COVID-19 pandemic.

HIV medicine·2025

Same author

Magnetic-Induced Force Noise in LISA Pathfinder Free-Falling Test Masses.

Physical review letters·2025

Same author

[Screening for sleep disorders in internal medicine as potential comorbidities of systemic autoimmune diseases and improving patients' quality of life].

La Revue de medecine interne·2024

Same author

Design, justification, and prototyping of the visible and infrared wide angle viewing system diagnostic for ITER equatorial port 12.

The Review of scientific instruments·2024

Same author

[Characteristics of radiotherapy for adolescents and young adults].

Cancer radiotherapie : journal de la Societe francaise de radiotherapie oncologique·2024

Same author

Immunogenicity of BNT162b2 vaccine after two and three doses in health personnel and institutionalized elderly people not infected with SARS-CoV-2.

Semergen·2023

Same journal

A Model-Free Reinforcement Learning Implementation of Decision Making Under Uncertainty by Sequential Sampling.

Neural computation·2026

Same journal

DROP: Distributional and Regular Optimism and Pessimism for Reinforcement Learning.

Neural computation·2026

Same journal

Hierarchical Active Inference Using Successor Representations.

Neural computation·2026

Same journal

W-Kernel and Its Principal Space for Frequentist Evaluation of Bayesian Estimators.

Neural computation·2026

Same journal

A Hidden Markov Model-Inspired Sequence Classification Method for Hyperdimensional Computing.

Neural computation·2026

Same journal

Sparse Graphical Modeling for Electrophysiological Phase-Based Connectivity Using Circular Statistics.

Neural computation·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 20, 2026

Setup for the Quantitative Assessment of Motion and Muscle Activity During a Virtual Modified Box and Block Test

Setup for the Quantitative Assessment of Motion and Muscle Activity During a Virtual Modified Box and Block Test

Published on: January 12, 2024

Redundancy, self-motion, and motor control.

V Martin¹, J P Scholz, G Schöner

¹Institut für Neuroinformatik, Ruhr-Universität Bochum NRW 44801, Germany. val33martin@yahoo.de

Neural Computation

|September 1, 2009

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Human movement control involves selecting among redundant solutions. This study introduces a model where neuronal dynamics generate virtual joint trajectories, explaining how the nervous system controls complex movements and accounting for self-motion in joint velocities.

More Related Videos

Movement Retraining using Real-time Feedback of Performance

Movement Retraining using Real-time Feedback of Performance

Published on: January 17, 2013

A Human-machine-interface Integrating Low-cost Sensors with a Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation System for Post-stroke Balance Rehabilitation

A Human-machine-interface Integrating Low-cost Sensors with a Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation System for Post-stroke Balance Rehabilitation

Published on: April 12, 2016

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 20, 2026

Setup for the Quantitative Assessment of Motion and Muscle Activity During a Virtual Modified Box and Block Test

Setup for the Quantitative Assessment of Motion and Muscle Activity During a Virtual Modified Box and Block Test

Published on: January 12, 2024

Movement Retraining using Real-time Feedback of Performance

Movement Retraining using Real-time Feedback of Performance

Published on: January 17, 2013

A Human-machine-interface Integrating Low-cost Sensors with a Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation System for Post-stroke Balance Rehabilitation

A Human-machine-interface Integrating Low-cost Sensors with a Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation System for Post-stroke Balance Rehabilitation

Published on: April 12, 2016

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Biomechanics
Robotics

Background:

Human movement often utilizes redundant effector systems, posing a challenge for motor control.
Understanding how the nervous system selects movement solutions is key to deciphering motor control principles.

Purpose of the Study:

To propose a process model for movement generation in redundant systems.
To explain the kinematics of goal-directed pointing movements using a novel neuronal dynamics approach.

Main Methods:

Developed a process model incorporating neuronal dynamics and a neuronal timer.
Simulated virtual joint trajectories and end-effector motion.
Compared model predictions with experimental data from human participants performing pointing tasks.

Main Results:

Discovered significant self-motion in joint velocities not directly contributing to end-effector movement.
Identified low muscle joint impedance and multiarticulatory muscle coupling as causes of self-motion.
Established a correlation between self-motion amount and end-effector path curvature.

Conclusions:

The proposed model accurately predicts self-motion and path curvature in human arm movements.
Models relying solely on inverse dynamics to cancel interaction torques underestimate self-motion and predict overly straight paths.