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Related Concept Videos

Direct Motor Pathways01:11

Direct Motor Pathways

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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...
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Hierarchy of Motor Control01:18

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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.
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Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex01:14

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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
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Indirect Motor Pathways01:22

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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.
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The muscles of the forearm that move the wrist, hand, and digits are numerous and diverse. They can be classified into two groups based on their location and function — the anterior and posterior compartment muscles.
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Every cell in the body maintains a membrane potential due to an uneven distribution of positive and negative charges across its plasma membrane. The membrane potential is measured in millivolts and quantifies the difference in charge across the membrane.
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Related Experiment Video

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In Vivo Wireless Optogenetic Control of Skilled Motor Behavior
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Cortical pattern generation during dexterous movement is input-driven.

Britton A Sauerbrei1, Jian-Zhong Guo1, Jeremy D Cohen1

  • 1Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA, USA.

Nature
|December 27, 2019
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

The motor cortex generates skilled arm movements, but external inputs, like those from the thalamus, also play a crucial role in shaping these motor patterns. This suggests a distributed pattern generator for dexterous arm movement.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Motor Control
  • Systems Neuroscience

Background:

  • The motor cortex is essential for skilled arm movement, generating temporal activity patterns sent to lower motor centers.
  • Local cortical dynamics are believed to shape these motor patterns during movement execution.
  • External inputs may influence the motor cortex's initial state and potentially contribute to pattern generation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the distinct roles of local cortical dynamics and external inputs in generating motor patterns during a prehension task in mice.
  • To determine how perturbations to cortical state and thalamic input affect movement initiation and execution.

Main Methods:

  • Perturbation of cortical state to an aberrant state and observation of movement initiation after release.
  • Inactivation of the thalamus to assess the impact of external inputs on cortical activity and limb kinematics.
  • Activation of thalamocortical axon terminals at varying frequencies.
  • Simultaneous recording of cortical and thalamic activity.

Main Results:

  • Perturbing the motor cortex prevented movement initiation; upon release, cortex either bypassed the normal initial state or failed to generate the reaching pattern, suggesting input-dependent recovery.
  • Thalamic inactivation disrupted cortical activity and limb movement at all stages.
  • Graded disruption of cortical activity and arm movement was observed with varying frequencies of thalamocortical axon terminal activation.
  • Both thalamic activity and the current cortical state predicted subsequent changes in cortical activity.

Conclusions:

  • The pattern generator for dexterous arm movement is not solely reliant on local cortical dynamics but is distributed across multiple, interacting brain regions, including the thalamus.
  • External inputs, particularly from the thalamus, play a significant role in both initiating and modulating motor patterns.
  • Motor control involves a dynamic interplay between local cortical states and external driving forces.