Motor Control

Common Terms

100

The performance and refinement of skilled movement

Motor control

200

sensory neurons that bring information from the body to the CNS

Afferent 

300

your body's ability to sense the position and movement of your joints and limbs without looking at them.

It is often called your "position sense" or "body awareness."

proprioception

400

system that encodes information about body position (segmental positions and environmental position) • aka Initial Conditions

Peripheral Nervous System

500

•Neural organization of skilled movement 

•Muscles  joints, etc. share tasks

Synergies

Nature of Movement

100

Perception, Cognition, Action

Individual

200

Attention, planning, problem solving, motivation, emotional aspects of goals

Cognition

300

Motor output to muscles Multiple equivalent outputs (many ways to get the same outcome) Degrees of freedom problem

Action

400

Peripheral sensory mechanisms Central processing for meaning State of body & environment

Perception

500

Movement is directed by the central nervous system based on what three factors?

activity, place, person (individual, task, environment)

Nature of Movement 2

100

type of task: Golf swing

Discrete

200

Movement must conform to environment

Regulatory

300

Movement does not need to conform to, but may be affected by these features

Non regulatory

400

Sub category of Task: 

Dribbling a soccer ball.

Manipulation

500

is the area beneath and between all points of the body that are in contact with the supporting surface.

BOS (base of support)

Relationship to Stability

Stability increases when:

✅ BOS is larger

✅ Center of gravity remains within the BOS

✅ Body mass is lower

Stability decreases when:

❌ BOS is smaller

❌ Center of gravity moves near the edge of the BOS

motor control key players

100

Sensory Input + CNS Processing + Motor Output = ?

movement 

200

Brainstem regions

Midbrain, pons, medulla

300

Receptors of the brainstem 

Vestibular, skin, joints, muscles

400

T/F: Afferent is sensory, and efferent is motor. 

True

500

neurons located entirely within the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) that connect sensory neurons to motor neurons or connect neurons to other neurons.

They act as the "middlemen" of the nervous system, processing and integrating information before a response is produced.

Interneurons 

ex. Sensory neuron → Interneuron → Motor neuron

1. Sensory neuron detects heat and pain.
2. The sensory neuron sends a signal to the spinal cord.
3. An interneuron receives the signal and processes it.
4. The interneuron activates a motor neuron.
5. The motor neuron causes your arm muscles to contract and pull your hand away.

Without the interneuron, the sensory and motor neurons would not be able to communicate effectively in many reflex pathways.

Systems theory of motor control

100

Nervous system + muscular system + skeletal system

NMSK system (neuromuscular system)

200

Optimal movement variability

highly Complex movement/ moderately predictable

300

Filters CNS commands based on available joint integrity, ROM, force production capability, etc. to execute desired movement P

MSK (musculoskeletal)

400

Movement includes ______ and ______ parameters

Linear: output is proportional to input 

• Joint Torque: Torque =Muscle Force x moment arm 

Nonlinear: output is not proportional to input 

• Certain parameters cause new movements to emerge when gradually changed • walking to running;  

control = velocity

500

Integrates and weights sensory information 

• Plans action based on initial conditions 

• Sends action plans to MSK

CNS