PSYC271
Lecture 18
The Sensorimotor System
Principles of Sensorimotor Function
1. The sensorimotor system is organized
hierarchically:
• Association cortex gives direction to
orders"
lower levels "gives
>
-
• Can require attention
• Lower levels (motor neurons and
muscles) take care of details
• Does not require attention
• Allows higher levels to focus on
complex functions
• Functionally segregated, parallel
has different functions
pathways
each
descending pathways, feedback
circuits
Principles of Sensorimotor Function
2. Motor output is guided by sensory
input (hence “sensorimotor”):
input having
while output
constantly taking
• System carefully monitors the external
world
• Can adjust its own actions
• Only ballistic movements are not
guided by feedback
• Sensory inputs help with:
• Picking things up
• Adjusting to unanticipated external
forces
• Maintaining constant force
Principles of Sensorimotor Function
Case: G.O. was a dart champion who
lost almost all somatosensory nerves
in his arms due to infection
• Could still move hands/arms in an
apparently normal fashion with or
without visual feedback
• Stated his hands were virtually useless
• Could not pick up cereal, button
clothes, write, hold a cup of coffee
long
• Worse without visual feedback
Principles of Sensorimotor Function
3. Learning and conscious control
• Initially, actions are under conscious control
• With practice, they become integrated sequences of action
• They are automatically adjusted without conscious regulation
Sensorimotor association cortex
(Sensory
integration, spatial
(planning voluntary
processing,
movements,
voluntary
decision-making)
movements)
Posterior Parietal Association Cortex
Provides information on where body
parts are in relation to the external world
• Sub-areas for body parts
Receives input from visual, auditory,
and somatosensory systems
Output goes to secondary motor
cortices
Stimulation of inferior posterior parietal
cortex on performing an action (Never
actually performed)
• Low: feels like wanting to act
• High: feels like actually acting
Damage to Posterior Parietal Cortex
Apraxia: Inability to perform movements on command
• Associated with left hemisphere posterior parietal damage
• Symptoms are bilateral
• Normally can perform the movements when contextually-
appropriate
“How do you use a hammer?”
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Association Cortex
Receives projections from posterior parietal
cortex.
Projects to:
• Secondary motor cortices
• Primary cortex
• Frontal eye field
Involved in assessments of external stimuli,
planning movements.
• Usually the first area to fire for voluntary
response initiation
• May work with posterior parietal cortex in
decisions regarding voluntary response
initiation
• Reciprocal connections (not shown in
diagram)
Secondary motor cortex
Areas of Secondary Motor Cortex
At least eight areas of secondary motor
cortex (each hemisphere), with distinctions
currently under debate
• Two areas of premotor cortex
• Three supplemental motor areas
• Three cingulate motor areas
Projects to primary motor cortex, each
other, and brainstem
Produce complex movements (before and
during voluntary movements, often
bilateral)
• General instructions from association
cortices
Mirror Neurons
Fire when an individual makes goal-directed
movements
Fire when an individual observes someone
else performing goal-directed movements
May be a mechanism for social cognition
• Understanding the intentions of others
• Mirror neurons related to physical and/or
emotional pain are hypothesized to
underlie empathy
someone preform action
trigger the
watching
an can
same narore as if
you
were
performing an action
Primary motor cortex
Primary Motor
Cortex
Conventional View:
• Somatotopically organized
• Each area receives feedback from
muscle and joints
• Neurons code for preferred direction
of movement
• Body is disproportionately
represented
• Body is diffusely represented on the
motor homunculus
Primary Motor
Cortex
• Not a 1:1 relationship between body
location and motor homunculus
• Research using longer (0.5-1.0s)
stimulation reveals more “real” motor
movements
• Longer duration allowed
observation of more complex motor
movements, often species-typical
• E.g. Feeding response: Hand
reached out, grasped, hand came
to mouth, mouth opened
Primary Motor
Cortex
• Due to more body parts involved,
somatotopic map is less precise
• Activity based on end location, not
direction of movement (action map)
• The same stimulation can activate
opposite muscles from opposite
locations to get same end location
• Neurally controlled prosthetics are
being tested
Brain-to-Brain Communication via Motor Cortex Activity
explores what kind of motor action
to take
https://www.youtube.com/watch? you trying
were
v=rNRDc714W5I&ab_channel=uwneuralsystems
Damage to Primary Motor Cortex
Effects of Primary Motor Cortex Lesions:
• Contralateral astereognosia
• Inability to identify objects by touch.
• Reduce speed and force of
contralateral movements
• Increase difficulty in moving one body
part independent of others (e.g., finger)
• Does NOT produce paralysis
The cerebellum & basal ganglia
The Cerebellum
• Only 10% of brain’s mass, but contains over half
of its neurons
• Organized systematically into lobes.
• Receives inputs from primary and secondary
egration
motor cortex, brainstem motor nuclei,
somatosensory and vestibular systems.
3
• Integrates and coordinates activity of structure
in sensorimotor system.
• Corrects deviations from intended movements.
• Involved in timing, posture, fine-tuning skilled
motor movements, and motor learning.
• May do the same for sensory, cognitive, and
emotional responses.
Damage to the
Cerebellum
Diffuse Damage:
• Loss of precise movement control
• Inability to adapt motor output to changing
conditions
• Inability to maintain steady posture
• Inability to exhibit coordinated locomotion
• Inability to maintain balance
• Cannot speak clearly
A cat with cerebellar hypoplasia
The Basal Ganglia
Numerous reciprocal connections with
cortex and cerebellum (“neural loops”)
Functions:
• Originally thought to modulate motor
output
• Now understood to also contribute to
a variety of cognitive (non-motor)
functions
• e.g., learning, “movement vigor”
Descending motor pathways
Dorsolateral and Ventromedial Pathways
Comparing Dorsolateral and Ventromedial Pathways
t cling
body muscles (for from the core)
on me (core)
Dorsolateral Ventromedial
2 tracts 2 tracts
• 1 tract direct to spine • 1 tract direct to spine
• 1 tract synapses in brainstem • 1 tract synapses in brainstem
Descends contralaterally in spinal cord Descends ipsilaterally or bilaterally in spinal cord
Synapses contralaterally in spinal cord Synapses bilaterally in spinal cord
Less diffuse More diffuse
Distal muscles of limbs Proximal muscles of trunk and limbs
Individual/fine and reaching motor movements Whole-body movements and posture
