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

Muscle Coordination and Action

Muscle Coordination and Action

Muscle coordination is a complex and finely tuned process essential for smooth and purposeful movements like flexion, extension, adduction, abduction, and rotation. The human body orchestrates the actions of various muscles working in concert, each with a specific role. Four functional types describe how muscles work together: agonist, antagonist, synergist, and fixator.
Agonists
Agonist muscles, often called prime movers, are the primary muscles responsible for producing a specific movement....

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.

Anatomical Movements

Anatomical Movements

Anatomical movements refer to the various actions or motions that can be performed by the body's joints and muscles. These movements are described using specific terms to provide a standardized way of discussing and understanding the range of motion at different joints.
Here are some common anatomical movements:
Flexion and extension motions are in the sagittal (anterior–posterior) plane of motion. These movements take place at the shoulder, hip, elbow, knee, wrist,...

Propagation of Action Potentials

Propagation of Action Potentials

The propagation of an action potential refers to the process by which a nerve impulse, or "action potential," travels along a neuron.
Neurons (nerve cells) have a resting membrane potential, with a slightly negative charge inside compared to outside. This is maintained by ion channels, such as sodium (Na+) and potassium (K+) channels, which control the flow of ions. When a stimulus, like a touch or a signal from another neuron, triggers the neuron, sodium channels open, allowing sodium ions to...

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by

Same author

Speakers with cerebellar ataxia do not adapt speech segment durations in response to durationally altered auditory feedback.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026

Same author

Sensorimotor Adaptation of Vocal Pitch Is Impaired in Cerebellar Ataxia.

Journal of cognitive neuroscience·2026

Same author

Audiomotor prediction errors drive speech adaptation even in the absence of overt movement.

PLoS biology·2026

Same author

Temporal patterns in articulation underlying repetitions, prolongations and blocks.

Journal of fluency disorders·2026

Same author

Neural Responses to Affective Sentences Reveal Signatures of Depression.

Translational psychiatry·2026

Same author

Time-resolved EEG decoding reveals altered neural dynamics of affective semantic evaluation in depression and suicidality.

Communications biology·2026

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 3, 2026

Corticospinal Excitability Modulation During Action Observation

Corticospinal Excitability Modulation During Action Observation

Published on: December 31, 2013

Spatiotemporal coupling between speech and manual motor actions.

Benjamin Parrell¹, Louis Goldstein², Sungbok Lee¹

¹University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.

Journal of Phonetics

|January 28, 2014

Summary

Emphatic stress impacts both finger tapping and speech motor systems, showing a strong connection between manual and vocal actions. This suggests prosody implementation relies on general motor system functions, not just specific domains.

Keywords:

Speech articulation manual gesture motor coordination motor timing prosody synchronization

More Related Videos

Stimulating the Lip Motor Cortex with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Stimulating the Lip Motor Cortex with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Published on: June 14, 2014

Somatosensory Event-related Potentials from Orofacial Skin Stretch Stimulation

Somatosensory Event-related Potentials from Orofacial Skin Stretch Stimulation

Published on: December 18, 2015

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 3, 2026

Corticospinal Excitability Modulation During Action Observation

Corticospinal Excitability Modulation During Action Observation

Published on: December 31, 2013

Stimulating the Lip Motor Cortex with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Stimulating the Lip Motor Cortex with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Published on: June 14, 2014

Somatosensory Event-related Potentials from Orofacial Skin Stretch Stimulation

Somatosensory Event-related Potentials from Orofacial Skin Stretch Stimulation

Published on: December 18, 2015

Area of Science:

Motor Control
Speech Motor System
Manual Motor System

Background:

Pervasive links exist between manual and speech motor systems.
Evidence comes from infant development, pointing, and repetitive tasks.
Existing paradigms explore tapping and speaking tasks.

Purpose of the Study:

Investigate intra- and cross-modal effects of emphatic stress.
Examine motor system coordination without explicit rhythm.
Understand the connection between manual and speech motor control.

Main Methods:

Subjects performed synchronous finger tapping and syllable repetition.
Emphatic stress was applied to either a finger tap or a spoken syllable.
Movement duration and magnitude were measured.

Main Results:

Emphatic stress affected both movement duration and magnitude.
Effects were observed regardless of stress domain (intra- or cross-modal).
Cross-modal effects were observed, indicating a tight coupling.

Conclusions:

The motor system exhibits tight coupling between manual and speech domains.
Prosody implementation is not domain-specific but relies on general motor functions.
This coupling is evident even without stress, but highlighted under stress.