9/17/17

Class Announcements
• Lab Announcements on SacCT
• Question 6 and 7 à fast and comfortable
• Question 8 à strides per trial divided by 10
• E-mail Etiquette
• “Hi Professor” and “Sincerely, Ricky”

Previous Lecture Review

• 4 Common Characteristic
• Motor Equivalence
• Motor Variability
• Motor Consistency
• Motor Modifiability

• 4 Problems
• DOF
• Perceptual-Motor
• Timing
• Acquisition
• 1- and 2-Dimensional Classification
• Gentile’s

Previous Lecture Review

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The Neurological Basis of

Human Movement
Chapter 3

Key Questions
• Cellular level?
• Sensation?
• Perceptual areas/structures?
• Perception for control and learning?
• Two visual systems for control?
• Key Structures?
• CNS control movement?
• Muscle contractions controlled by CNS?

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Neural Control of
Movement
• Entire human organism
• CNS
•Brain
•Spinal Cord
• PNS
•← Muscles
•→ Sensory Receptors
• Billions of nerve cells!

Sensorimotor Integration

• Input à Sensory information

• Sensory receptors
• Ascending/Afferent pathways
• Processing/Integration
• CNS
•Interneurons
• Muscle Activity à Output
•Motor neurons
•Descending/Efferent
Pathways

A Typical Neuron

Stanfield and German, 2009

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Communication via
Synapses
• Pre- to post-synaptic
• Electrochemical
• Synaptic vesicles à
cleft
• Neurotransmitters
(NTs) and receptors
• Excitation vs. inhibition
• Acetylcholine
• Glutamate and GABA
• Norepinephrine, epinephrine,
dopamine, and serotonin

Neuronal Communication

• EPSP
• IPSP
• Action Potentials
• ‘Threshold’
•Depolarization
•Temporal and/or spatial
summation
• Re-polarization and
hyperpolarization

How are we going to learn

about neural control?

Key Brain Areas

- Integration

Ascending/Input to Descending/Output
CNS to Muscles

Sensation Muscle Activity

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Somatosensory System
• Proprioceptors
• Mechanoreceptors
•Transduction
• Mechanical à
Electrochemical
• Cutaneous receptors
• Mechanoreceptors
• *Thermorecptors,
Nocioceptors,
Chemoreceptors and Free
Nerve Endings

Proprioception vs.
Kinesthesia
• Proprioception
• Conscious sensation à perception
•Limb position, movement, tension or force,
effort and balance
•Not just muscles!
• Lungs, arteries, and gut
• Kinesthesia
• Sensation of limb position and movement

Proske and Gandevia, 2008, 2012

Somatosensory System -
Cutaneous Receptors
• Mechanoreceptors à
Pressure and vibrations
• Merkel’s, Pacinian,
Meissner, Ruffini and hair
follicles
• Kinesthesia à Yes!
• Environment
• Objects
• Object Manipulation

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Somatosensory System -
Muscle Spindles
• Length and rate of
change (velocity)
• Extrafusal lengthen à
Intrafusal fire
• Extrafusal àAlpha
• Intrafusal à Gamma
• 3 primary functions:
• Limb Position/Movement
• Stretch Reflex
• Load/Perturbations

Somatosensory System –
GTOs
• Tension on tendons
• Lengthen ⧣ Tension
•Rate of MU recruitment
• Frequency of firing =
Tension
• Protective function
• Clasp-knife reflex
• Extreme joint angles
• GTO’s adapt

Somatosensory System –
Joint Receptors
• Extreme joint angles
à Fire
• Not connected to
alpha MN
• Potential roles
• Perception of Static
Joint Angles
•Too slow for dynamic
• Injury?
•Joint replacement

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Dorsal Column – Medial

Lemniscus (DC-ML) Pathway

Auditory System
• Hair cells = auditory
receptors
• Transducing sound
waves
•Loudness/Amplitude
à Compression of air
•Frequency à Waves
per second
• Think of walking
cycle frequency from
Lab #1

Audition in the Ear

• Vibration à Middle ear
• Same frequency and
amplitude
• Amplification
• Fluid waves à Cochlea
• Amplification
• Bending of hair cells à
Organ of Corti
•Amount of bending
•Location

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Somatosensory in the Ear –

Vestibular Apparatus
• Saccule and utricle
•Acceleration of body
• Linear Acceleration
• Three semicircular
canals
• Head Movement
•Rotational Acceleration
• x, y, z
• Body/Head Acceleration
• Balance/ Equilibrium

Vestibulocochlear Nerve
• Vestibular = Cranial
Nerve VIII (out of 12)
• Vestibular nuclei
•Brainstem
• Cerebellum
• Cochlear = Part of
Cranial Nerve VIII
• Thalamus
• Primary Auditory
cortex (A1)

Visual System
• Photoreceptors à
Electromagnetic waves
• Color à Wavelength
• Reflection
•Light off objects
• If absorbed do not
perceive!
• Refraction
• Bending of light waves
• Accommodation
• Lens

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Vision with the Eyes

• Retina
• Photopigments
• Rods Figure 10.19 from
• Black and white Stanfield and Germann

• Dim light
• Peripheral Retina
• Cones
• Color vision
• Bright light
• Acuity
• Fovea

Visual ‘Blind Spot’

Individual Activity
Draw a large + and – on a piece of paper
Cover your right eye and look at –
Move piece of paper closer to your face
Notice anything with +?

Optic Nerve
• Optic à Cranial
nerve II
• Axons of
ganglion cells
• Thalamus
• Primary Visual
Cortex (V1)

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Perception – Visual
Perception
• Depth Perception
• Focal Vision
• Consciously perceived and
controlled
• Location and Object
Movement à Optic flow
• Peripheral (Ambient)
Vision
• Often sub-consciously
• Motion

Comparison of Focal and

Ambient Visual Systems

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