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Explore the fundamentals of movement, from motor cortex homunculus to reflex responses and muscle types. Dive into complex movement involving memory, strength, and coordination across brain regions like the cortex, basal ganglia, and cerebellum. Discover the significance of adaptive movement in optimizing actions and minimizing costs. Learn about movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease and spinal cord injury. Delve into the language as movement, including motor and mirror theories of speech. Unravel the mysteries of the brain's language network and plasticity.
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Chapter 7 Movements
Outline • Movement basics • Complex movement • Adaptive movement • Movement disorders • Language from movement
Movement basics • Motor homonculus in motor cortex • Which areas are given the most real estate?
Movement basics • Corticospinal tracts • Lateral corticospinal tract • Anterior corticospinal tract • The spinal cord • Transit system for motor neural signals • Reflex responses
Complex Movement • Movement requires memory, strength, sensory feedback, and coordination across brain regions
Complex Movement Super advanced robot vs. a child
Complex Movement: Basal ganglia • Interconnected nuclei that surround the thalamus • Involved in: • Movement • Habit formation • Attention • Communicates as needed with cerebral cortex
Complex Movement: Cerebellum • Movement coordination, balance, and muscle tone • 10% of the brain’s total volume • 4x more neurons than the cortex
Adaptive movement • Optimal actions minimize cost and maximize reward. • Predict how much effort is needed before lifting a box
Adaptive movement • Many species can do complex movements • What are some possible functions for complex movements?
Adaptive movement: Athletics • Novice and expert golfers exhibit different patterns of brain activity when preparing to make a shot. • Becoming an expert usually means automating behavior (less prefrontal cortex)
Adaptive movement: Athletics • What happens when athletes “overthink” automatic behaviors? • Is “icing the kicker” effective?
Adaptive movement: Exercise • Exercise may help your brain stave off effects of again • Why might exercise be more important now than a few hundred (or thousand) years ago?
Movement Disorders Add Title here • Parkinson’s disease • Spinal cord injury
Movement Disorders: Spinal cord injury • 2.5 million worldwide • Severe impact on quality of life • CNS neurons don’t regrow
Movement Disorders: Spinal cord injury Animal models of spinal cord injury are used to develop therapies that may hold promise for human spinal cord injuries.
Language as movement • Protosigns and protolanguage • Similar gestures across some primates
Language as movement • Mirror theory of speech • Motor theory of speech • Genetics also play a role (genes implicated in dyslexis)
Language as movement • Where did we get the sounds used in our language from? • From nature?
Language as movement: Cortex Large language network. Much early knowledge about language in the brain came from patients with lesions in particular areas
Language as movement: Cortex • Language is primarily left-lateralized • Individuals with damage to left hemisphere show some plasticity • Better plasticity for younger people