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Central pattern generators are groups of neurons in the spinal cord that are responsible for generating stereotyped movement. It has been shown that in cats, rhythmic activation patterns are still observed following removal of sensory afferents and removal of the brain., [1] indicating that there is neural pattern generation in the spinal cord independent of descending signals from the brain ...
The automaticity of posture and locomotion emerge from the interactions between peripheral nervous system (PNS) and central nervous system (CNS) to work in synergy, each system having intrinsic activation and inhibition patterns that can generate coordinated motor outputs.
The activation of more motor neurons will result in more muscle fibers being activated, and therefore a stronger muscle contraction. Motor unit recruitment is a measure of how many motor neurons are activated in a particular muscle, and therefore is a measure of how many muscle fibers of that muscle are activated.
The gradient of motor unit force is correlated with a gradient in motor neuron soma size and motor neuron electrical excitability. This relationship was described by Elwood Henneman and is known as Henneman's size principle , a fundamental discovery of neuroscience and an organizing principle of motor control.
An alternative related hypothesis is that the striatum controls action initiation and selection via a ’center-surround’ architecture, where activation of a subset of direct pathway neurons initiates movements while closely related motor patterns represented by surrounding neurons are inhibited by lateral inhibition via indirect pathway ...
Upper motor neurons (UMNs) is a term introduced by William Gowers in 1886. They are found in the cerebral cortex and brainstem and carry information down to activate interneurons and lower motor neurons, which in turn directly signal muscles to contract or relax. UMNs represent the major origin point for voluntary somatic movement.
The motor neuron sends an electrical impulse to a muscle. When the neuron in the cortex becomes active, it causes a muscle contraction. The greater the activity in the motor cortex, the stronger the muscle force. Each point in the motor cortex controls a muscle or a small group of related muscles. This description is only partly correct.
A motor neuron (or motoneuron or efferent neuron [1]) is a neuron whose cell body is located in the motor cortex, brainstem or the spinal cord, and whose axon (fiber) projects to the spinal cord or outside of the spinal cord to directly or indirectly control effector organs, mainly muscles and glands. [2]