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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...

Major Somatic Sensory Pathways

Major Somatic Sensory Pathways

Sensory impulses related to touch, pressure, vibration, and proprioception from various body parts, such as the limbs, trunk, neck, and posterior head, travel to the cerebral cortex through the posterior column-medial lemniscus pathway. The pathway’s name derives from the two white-matter tracts that convey the impulses: the spinal cord's posterior column and the brainstem's medial lemniscus. First-order sensory neurons extend their axons into the spinal cord, forming the posterior columns...

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...

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.

Somatosensation

Somatosensation

The somatosensory system relays sensory information from the skin, mucous membranes, limbs, and joints. Somatosensation is more familiarly known as the sense of touch. A typical somatosensory pathway includes three types of long neurons: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary neurons have cell bodies located near the spinal cord in groups of neurons called dorsal root ganglia. The sensory neurons of ganglia innervate designated areas of skin called dermatomes.

Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex

Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex

The cerebral cortex, the brain's outermost layer, is pivotal in processing complex cognitive tasks, emotions, and various sensory inputs and executing voluntary motor activities. This intricate structure is divided into three primary functional areas: the motor areas, sensory areas, and association areas.
Motor Areas
The motor areas located in the frontal lobe are central to controlling voluntary movements. This region is further subdivided into the primary motor cortex and the premotor cortex.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 18, 2026

The "Motor" in Implicit Motor Sequence Learning: A Foot-stepping Serial Reaction Time Task

The "Motor" in Implicit Motor Sequence Learning: A Foot-stepping Serial Reaction Time Task

Published on: May 3, 2018

Sensory-based mechanism for delayed motor intention.

Arnaud Badets¹, Cédric T Albinet, Yannick Blandin

¹Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l'Apprentissage, UMR-7295, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), 86000 Poitiers, France. arnaud.badets@univ-poitiers.fr

Acta Psychologica

|September 13, 2012

Summary

Prospective motor learning (PML) benefits from anticipating sensory effects via an intention-based (ideomotor) control. This mental anticipation provides an advantage over stimulus-based (sensorimotor) control for future actions.

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Combined Peripheral Nerve Stimulation and Controllable Pulse Parameter Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to Probe Sensorimotor Control and Learning

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Area of Science:

Motor control and learning
Cognitive neuroscience
Human motor performance

Background:

Prospective motor learning (PML) involves learning actions for future execution.
The underlying retrieval mechanisms for delayed motor performance are not fully understood.
Two potential retrieval modes are stimulus-based (sensorimotor) and intention-based (ideomotor) control.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the retrieval mechanisms underlying prospective motor learning.
To compare the efficacy of intention-based versus stimulus-based control in PML.
To determine if the ideomotor mechanism offers an advantage in delayed motor intentions.

Main Methods:

Experimental study comparing intention-based and stimulus-based control groups.
Inclusion of a control task to assess the specificity of findings to PML.
Behavioral analysis of action retrieval performance.

Main Results:

Participants using intention-based control demonstrated an advantage in action retrieval compared to those using stimulus-based control.
The observed intention-based advantage was specific to prospective motor learning.
Mental anticipation of sensory effects, processed via the ideomotor mechanism, benefits PML.

Conclusions:

Prospective motor learning is significantly enhanced by an intention-based control mode.
The ideomotor mechanism, relying on anticipating sensory consequences, is crucial for fulfilling delayed motor intentions.
Findings elucidate the privileged retrieval mechanism in prospective motor learning.