Motor control

Motor control is the regulation of movements in organisms that possess a nervous system. Motor control includes conscious voluntary movements, subconscious muscle memory and involuntary reflexes,^[1] as well as instinctual taxis.

To control movement, the nervous system must integrate multimodal sensory information (both from the external world as well as proprioception) and elicit the necessary signals to recruit muscles to carry out a goal. This pathway spans many disciplines, including multisensory integration, signal processing, coordination, biomechanics, and cognition,^[2]^[3] and the computational challenges are often discussed under the term sensorimotor control.^[4] Successful motor control is crucial to interacting with the world to carry out goals as well as for posture, balance, and stability.

Some researchers (mostly neuroscientists studying movement, such as Daniel Wolpert and Randy Flanagan) argue that motor control is the reason brains exist at all.^[5]

^ Sibson F (1850). "On The Causes Which Excite And Influence Respiration In Health And Disease". The Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association. 5 - New Series: 181–350. In all these instances the act of inspiration is excited through the reflex function of the nervous system -- the sudden impression made on the skin stimulates the extremities of the incident nerves; the stimulus is conveyed by the incident nerves to the spinal nervous centre, and is thence transmitted back over the motor nerves of inspiration. That these respiratory movements are purely excito-motor, and performed without the intervention of sensation, in many of those instances in which the excited movements are most energetic, is proved by the case with which remarkable movements of respiration were occasioned by stimulating the surface in cases of syncope, hysteria, and epilepsy, cases in which sensation was altogether absent, and was only restored after repeatedly stimulating the surface, and so inducing deep reflex inspirations again and again by exciting the incident nerves. [Page 206]
^ Rosenbaum DA (1991). Human motor control. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. p. 411. ISBN 978-0-12-597300-7.
^ Wise SP, Shadmehr R (July 10, 2002). "Motor Control". Encyclopedia of the Human Brain. Academic Press. pp. 137–157. ISBN 978-0-12-227210-3.
^ Franklin DW, Wolpert DM (November 2011). "Computational mechanisms of sensorimotor control". Neuron. 72 (3): 425–442. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2011.10.006. PMID 22078503.
^ Wolpert D (3 November 2011). "The real reason for brains". TED Conferences, LLC. Retrieved 2020-03-27.

[1] Sibson F (1850). "On The Causes Which Excite And Influence Respiration In Health And Disease". The Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association. 5 - New Series: 181–350. In all these instances the act of inspiration is excited through the reflex function of the nervous system -- the sudden impression made on the skin stimulates the extremities of the incident nerves; the stimulus is conveyed by the incident nerves to the spinal nervous centre, and is thence transmitted back over the motor nerves of inspiration. That these respiratory movements are purely excito-motor, and performed without the intervention of sensation, in many of those instances in which the excited movements are most energetic, is proved by the case with which remarkable movements of respiration were occasioned by stimulating the surface in cases of syncope, hysteria, and epilepsy, cases in which sensation was altogether absent, and was only restored after repeatedly stimulating the surface, and so inducing deep reflex inspirations again and again by exciting the incident nerves. [Page 206]

[Rosenbaum1991-2] Rosenbaum DA (1991). Human motor control. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. p. 411. ISBN 978-0-12-597300-7.

[Wise2002-3] Wise SP, Shadmehr R (July 10, 2002). "Motor Control". Encyclopedia of the Human Brain. Academic Press. pp. 137–157. ISBN 978-0-12-227210-3.

[Franklin_425–442-4] Franklin DW, Wolpert DM (November 2011). "Computational mechanisms of sensorimotor control". Neuron. 72 (3): 425–442. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2011.10.006. PMID 22078503.

[5] Wolpert D (3 November 2011). "The real reason for brains". TED Conferences, LLC. Retrieved 2020-03-27.

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