BIOPSYCHOLOGY: LECTURE 11

THE MOTOR SYSTEM

Dr. Paula Trotter
Learning Objectives
• Explain how spinal cord circuits allow basic reflex movements

to be made without input from the brain.

• Describe the hierarchy of neural regions involved in planning and

executing complex movements, and the functions that each

region carries out.

• Explain the function and significance of ‘mirror neurons’ in the

motor control system.

Keywords
• Antagonistic muscles • Skeletal (striated) muscles

• Neuromuscular junction • Smooth muscles

• Mirror neurons
• Motor neurons
• Primary motor cortex
• Acetylcholine
• Secondary motor cortex
• Corticospinal tracts
• Supplementary motor cortex
• Extensor • Premotor cortex
• Flexor • Posterior parietal cortex
• Reflexes • Basal ganglia
• Stretch reflex • Caudate nucleus
• Putamen
How do we move?
 Extraordinary humans: muscles

Presynaptic
terminals

Muscle
fibre

Motor neurons ‘synapse’ (communicate) with muscle fibres rather than other
neurons
- The neuromuscular junction (acetylcholine )
- Causes the muscle to contract (a movement).
How do we move?
Muscles attached to bones with tendons

Moving a leg or arm back and forth requires opposing

sets of muscles, called antagonistic muscles

Biceps muscle
contracts to flex the
arm

Triceps muscle
contracts to extend
the arm
Muscles and Their Movements
• Animal movement depends on muscle contractions
• Smooth muscles: control the digestive system and other organs
• Skeletal muscles/striated muscles: control movement of the
body in relation to the environment
• Cardiac muscles: heart muscles that have properties of skeletal
and smooth muscles
Muscles and Their Movements (cont’d.)
• Fluidity of movement depends on:

• Proprioceptors: receptors that detect the position or movement of a part of the

body
• Muscle spindles are proprioceptors parallel to the muscle that responds to a

stretch, and causes a contraction of the muscle

• Stretch reflex occurs when muscle proprioceptors detect the stretch and tension

of a muscle and send messages to the spinal cord to contract it.

• The Golgi tendon organ is another type of proprioceptor that responds to

increases in muscle tension

• Located in the tendons at the opposite ends of the muscle

• Acts as a “brake” against excessively vigorous contraction by sending an impulse

to the spinal cord where motor neurons are inhibited

**Automatic Sensori-Motor reflexes Pain in hand
Spinal cord
Sensory stimulates
Muscle neuron sensory pain
Tap on knee stimulates sensory receptors
receptor in the muscle

Sensory neuron activates motor

neuron in the spinal cord
Quadriceps
Motor
Hamstring
neuron
The stretch reflex: Allows you to maintain your
posture when an unexpected force is applied.

The withdrawal reflex:

Allows you to rapidly withdraw body from harmful
situations.
But how do we do this?!
From brain to muscle Part of the somatic
nervous system
Left
 Messages from the brain must reach the
medulla and spinal cord to control the muscles
 Corticospinal tracts are paths from the cerebral
cortex to the spinal cord
 Four major pathways from motor cortex to
spinal cord.
 Most cross over in the midbrain or spinal cord.
 Spinal damage can lead to paralysis.

Right
Four major pathways
Dorsolateral Ventromedial
Corticospinal Corticorubrospinal Corticospinal Cortico-brainstem-spinal

control the movements of the limbs involved in the control of posture and
whole-body movements (walking)
Motor control in the brain

Avatar
Hierarchical Motor Control
Posterior “My tea is close, and I
Prefrontal cortex
parietal cortex want to drink it”

Specify plan for grasping

Secondary motor cortex mug with both hands

Basal ganglia
Cerebellum

Specify which muscles need

Primary motor cortex to contract

Spinal motor neurons Causes muscles to

contract

Muscles
The Prefrontal Cortex (PFC)
• General role in ‘higher-order’ cognitive functions (not specialised
for motor control).
• Involved in planning, selecting responses and generating intentions
to move.

More PFC involvement

“Point with “Point with

your index any finger”
finger”
Posterior Parietal Cortex
To pick up the coffee, your brain needs to know:

1. What posture your body is currently in.

2. Where the cup is in relation to your hand.

• The posterior parietal cortex contains spatial

representations of the body and the
environment.
• This allows accurate movements to be
planned.
Secondary Motor Cortex
• Receives inputs from prefrontal cortex
• Sends information to primary motor cortex
•Learning and performing complex movements
and sequences of related movements.

• Premotor cortex
• Active during preparation for movement
• Receives information about a target
• Integrates information about position and posture of the body;
organizes the direction of the movement in space
• Supplementary motor cortex
• Organizes rapid sequence of movements in a specific order; inhibitory if
necessary
• Active seconds before the movement
Mirror Neurons
Found in secondary motor cortex, in the premotor cortex
(Rizzolatti et al, 1996)

Neuron responds when Neuron also responds when

monkey grasps ball someone else grasps ball
 Mirror neurons
• Mirror neurons are neurons that are active during both
preparation of a movement and while watching someone
else perform the same or similar movement

• Mirror neurons have been found in part of the premotor

cortex and in part of the parietal cortex.

• May be important for understanding, identifying with, and

imitating other people

• May be involved in social behaviors

• Unknown whether they cause or result from social

behaviour
Primary motor cortex (M1)

 Somatotopic and disproportionate map of body (can change as result

of training).
 Stimulation of cells causes movements of contralateral body parts.
 Damage to M1 produces partial paralysis on the side of the body
opposite the brain lesion
Cerebellum
• Receives:
1) motor output signals from primary and secondary
motor cortices.
2) Sensory feedback about body posture.
• Fine tunes the motor signals to increase the precision
of movements.

• Also calculates the timing of sequences of

movements.
• Cerebellar inputs and outputs do not cross the body
• So damage to the left cerebellum affects the left side of
the body
Image by Medical Art Services, Munich
The Basal Ganglia
• Coordination and control of
voluntary actions, amplitude
and direction, initiation of
movements

•Damage causes rigidity, freezing, tremor and slowness of

movements. (e.g. in Parkinson’s and Huntington's disease).
 Any questions?
Core reading
• Pinel: sections 8.1- 8.7 (or relevant sections in
another biopsychology textbook)
• Kalat: chapter 8