Descending Pathways in Motor Control
Top Cited Papers
- 1 July 2008
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Annual Reviews in Annual Review of Neuroscience
- Vol. 31 (1), 195-218
- https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.neuro.31.060407.125547
Abstract
Each of the descending pathways involved in motor control has a number of anatomical, molecular, pharmacological, and neuroinformatic characteristics. They are differentially involved in motor control, a process that results from operations involving the entire motor network rather than from the brain commanding the spinal cord. A given pathway can have many functional roles. This review explores to what extent descending pathways are highly conserved across species and concludes that there are actually rather widespread species differences, for example, in the transmission of information from the corticospinal tract to upper limb motoneurons. The significance of direct, cortico-motoneuronal (CM) connections, which were discovered a little more than 50 years ago, is reassessed. I conclude that although these connections operate in parallel with other less direct linkages to motoneurons, CM influence is significant and may subserve some special functions including adaptive motor behaviors involving the distal extremities.Keywords
This publication has 100 references indexed in Scilit:
- Can experiments in nonhuman primates expedite the translation of treatments for spinal cord injury in humans?Nature Medicine, 2007
- Muscle representation in the macaque motor cortex: An anatomical perspectiveProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2006
- Contrasting Properties of Motor Output from the Supplementary Motor Area and Primary Motor Cortex in Rhesus MacaquesCerebral Cortex, 2005
- Dexterous Finger Movements in Primate Without Monosynaptic Corticomotoneuronal ExcitationJournal of Neurophysiology, 2004
- Morphology of single pontine reticulospinal axons in the lumbar enlargement of the cat: A study using the anterograde tracer PHA-LJournal of Comparative Neurology, 1999
- Tool use in wild capuchin monkeys (Cebus albifrons trinitatis)American Journal of Primatology, 1998
- Corticospinal projection patterns following unilateral section of the cervical spinal cord in the newborn and juvenile macaque monkeyJournal of Comparative Neurology, 1997
- Multi-segmental innervation of single pontine reticulospinal axons in the cervico-thoracic region of the cat: Anterograde PHA-L tracing studyJournal of Comparative Neurology, 1997
- Spinal respiratory motoneuronsProgress in Neurobiology, 1991
- The output map of the primate motor cortexTrends in Neurosciences, 1988