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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...

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...

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.

Fixed Action Patterns

Fixed Action Patterns

A fixed action pattern (FAP) is a specific, hard-wired sequence of behaviors that occurs in response to an external stimulus, called a sign stimulus. The behavior is “fixed” because it is essentially unchangeable—proceeding similarly across individuals of a species every time it occurs.

Sequence Networks of Rotating Machines

Sequence Networks of Rotating Machines

A Y-connected synchronous generator, grounded through a neutral impedance, is designed to produce balanced internal phase voltages with only positive-sequence components. The generator's sequence networks include a source voltage that is exclusively in the positive-sequence network. The sequence components of line-to-ground voltages at the generator terminals illustrate this configuration.
Zero-sequence current induces a voltage drop across the generator's neutral impedance and other...

Motor Unit Stimulation

Motor Unit Stimulation

When the neuron of a motor unit fires an action potential, it triggers a series of events, leading to a twitch contraction in the muscle fibers. The process of excitation-contraction coupling is crucial in relaying the action potential to the muscle fibers.
The latent period of contraction marks the onset of excitation-contraction coupling, when the action potential propagates across the sarcolemma, preparing the muscle fibers for contraction. As the fibers enter the contraction phase, the...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 19, 2025

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

Flexible motor sequence generation during stereotyped escape responses.

Yuan Wang^1,2, Xiaoqian Zhang^1,2, Qi Xin^1,2

¹Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Center for Integrative Imaging, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.

|June 6, 2020

Summary

The nervous system of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans generates robust and flexible escape behaviors. This is achieved through neuronal excitation for motor sequences and inhibition for timing flexibility.

Keywords:

C. elegans escape response feedforward excitation motor sequence generation mutual inhibition neuroscience winner-take-all

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Last Updated: Dec 19, 2025

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Animal Behavior
Computational Biology

Background:

Complex animal behaviors are generated by combining motor primitives.
Understanding how nervous systems generate flexible behaviors is a key challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how the nervous system of Caenorhabditis elegans generates robust and flexible escape responses.
To elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying dynamic exploration of action spaces.

Main Methods:

Studied escape responses in Caenorhabditis elegans.
Analyzed neural circuits controlling motor sequences and timing.
Investigated the roles of electrical and glutamatergic synapses.

Main Results:

Identified feedforward excitation between neurons for robust motor sequence generation.
Found mutual inhibition between neurons controls timing flexibility.
Demonstrated electrical synapses facilitate feedforward coupling and glutamatergic synapses mediate inhibition.

Conclusions:

Caenorhabditis elegans combines excitatory coupling and mutual inhibition for robust and flexible motor sequences.
Neural circuit architecture enables dynamic exploration of action spaces for escape behaviors.