Neural Control of Movement

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

   PDF

2. Afferent Mechanisms

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. Isolated Muscle Spindles, their Motor Innervation and Central Control

      • M. H. Gladden

      Pages 3-9

   3. Recent Developments in the Physiology of the Mammalian Muscle Spindle

      • U. Proske

      Pages 11-18

   4. The Human Muscle Spindle and its Fusimotor Control

      • D. Burke, S. C. Gandevia

      Pages 19-25

   5. Mechanisms Underlying the Excitation of Muscle Afferents by Suxamethonium

      • M. B. Dutia

      Pages 27-33

   6. Quantitative Aspects of the Use of Succinylcholine in the Classification of Muscle Spindle Afferents

      • A. Taylor, R. Durbaba, J. F. Rodgers

      Pages 35-42

   7. Tendon Organ Discharges and their Central Effects During Muscle Contractions

      • L. Jami, D. Zytnicki, G. Horcholle-Bossavit

      Pages 43-49

3. Proprioception

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 51-51

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   2. Muscle, Cutaneous and Joint Receptors in Kinaesthesia

      • D. Ian McCloskey

      Pages 53-60

   3. Contribution of Joint Afferents to Proprioception and Motor Control

      • W. R. Ferrell

      Pages 61-66

   4. Assessing Accuracy of Positioning Joints and Limbs

      • F. J. Clark

      Pages 67-71

   5. The Behaviour of Cutaneous and Joint Afferents in the Human Hand During Finger Movements

      • V. G. Macefield

      Pages 73-78

   6. Limitations in the Neural Control of Human Thumb and Finger Flexors

      • S. C. Gandevia, S. L. Kilbreath

      Pages 79-85

4. Reflexes

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 87-87

      PDF

   2. Fusimotor Reflexes from Joint and Cutaneous Afferents

      • P. H. Ellaway

      Pages 89-96

   3. Reflex Performance of the Chronically Isolated Human Spinal Cord

      • R. H. Baxendale

      Pages 97-102

   4. Enkephalinergic and Monoaminergic Control of Segmental Pathways from Flexor Reflex Afferents (FRA)

      • E. D. Schomburg

      Pages 103-108

   5. Can the Sympathetic Nervous System Activation Contribute to “Context-Related” Modulations of the Stretch Reflex?

      • M. Passatore, C. Grassi, F. Deriu

      Pages 109-115

   6. Classical Conditioning of Eyeblink in Decerebrate Cats and Ferrets

      • G. Hesslow

      Pages 117-122

Presented with a choice of evils, most would prefer to be blinded rather than to be unable to move, immobilized in the late stages of Parkinson's disease. Yet in everyday life, as in Neuroscience, vision holds the centre of the stage. The conscious psyche watches a private TV show all day long, while the motor system is left to get on with it "out of sight and out of mind. " Motor skills are worshipped at all levels of society, whether in golf, tennis, soccer, athletics or in musical performance; meanwhile the subconscious machinery is ignored. But scientifically there is steady advance on a wide front, as we are reminded here, from the reversal of the reflexes of the stick insects to the site of motor learning in the human cerebral cortex. As in the rest of Physiology, evolution has preserved that which has already worked well; thus general principles can often be best discerned in lower animals. No one scientist can be personally involved at all levels of analysis, but especially for the motor system a narrow view is doomed from the outset. Interaction is all; the spinal cord has surrendered its autonomy to the brain, but the brain can only control the limbs by talking to the spinal cord in a language that it can understand, determined by its pre-existing circuitry; and both receive a continuous stream of feedback from the periphery.

• Parkinson
• cortex
• evolution
• neuroscience
• physiology

• University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, UK

  William R. Ferrell

• Monash University, Clayton, Australia

  Uwe Proske

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