What a movement is, how it is produced and kept accurate, and how the motor system is built up from the muscle to the cortex. Long questions are rare here: feedback control of movement is the usual short note, and viva examiners ask for the types of movement and the levels of motor organization. The motor unit, set as a 2-mark question against this chapter, is defined in the next one.
Topics, in the book’s order
- Movement and organization of the motor system · pp. 1040–1043 · asked once
When you’ve read them: Quiz 125 · Introduction to and Organization of Motor System, 12 questions.
After this chapter you should be able to
- describe the general plan of the motor system, from muscle to cortex
- name the two types of movement and list the features of each
- explain how the feedback control systems improve a movement
- say what each part of the motor system contributes to a movement
Viva checklist
- Definition of movement; agonist and antagonist
- The two types of movement, with an example of each
- Features of reflex versus volitional movements
- The three feedback systems: where each is integrated, and when each is used
- Why central feedback is slower but more precise than local feedback
- The components (levels) of the motor system
- The local segmental circuit, and why fast reflexes need it
- The two brainstem tracts that control posture
- The direct and the indirect route from the motor cortex to the cord
- What the basal ganglia do, and the input they lack
- What the cerebellum does, and what its disease looks like
- Why the thalamus is a sensorimotor link
- The motor unit (defined in chapter 126)