Direct Activation Pathway
This pathway is also called the pyramidal tract or direct motor system.
What is the direct activation pathway?
This pathway is also called the extrapyramidal tract or indirect motor system.
What is the indirect activation pathway?
This structure coordinates voluntary movements so that muscles contract with the correct amount of force and at appropriate times
What is the cerebellum?
What is the function of the motor homunculus?
It shows which parts of the primary motor cortex control different body parts and where voluntary movement signals start.
These two tracts make up the direct activation pathway.
What are the corticobulbar and corticospinal tracts?
This system works at an unconscious, automatic level in function.
What is the extrapyramidal system?
This structure is important in the planning of slow, continuous movement
What is the basal ganglia?
What is the main role of the association cortices?
To interpret and make sense of sensory information that has already been processed by the primary sensory cortices.
This system is contained entirely within the CNS and includes the direct and indirect activation pathways.
What the is the upper motor neuron system?
This system carries impulses that control postural support needed by fine motor movements.
What is the extrapyramidal system?
This structure is known as the "sensory relay station" and uses sensory information to further refine motor impulses
What is the thalamus?
Are the association cortices a single brain region?
No, they are divided into four different cortical areas.
This tract contains axons that descend down from the cortex and into the spinal cord.
What is the corticospinal tract?
What is the brainstem?
This type of dysarthria occurs when there is damage to the cerebellum
What is ataxic dysarthria?
What is the role of the primary motor cortex in voluntary movement?
It executes voluntary movements by receiving motor impulses that have already been processed and coordinated by the basal ganglia, cerebellum, and thalamus.
This tract contains axons that descend down from the cortex and into the brainstem.
What is the corticobulbar tract?
This pathway is sometimes referred to as the "brainstem motor pathways."
What is the indirect activation pathway?
This system that mediates thirst, hunger, fear, smell, taste, and emotions influences the speech motor pathway
What is the limbic system?
What is the role association cortices play in voluntary movement?
They formulate the initial planning of voluntary movements.