Chat with AIExam 7: Skeletomotor Control
What is population coding? What evidence is there for it from motor control?
(34) 
Answered by Examlex AI CopilotPopulation coding is a concept in neuroscience that suggests that information is represented in the brain by the combined activity of a population of neurons, rather than by the activity of individual neurons. This means that a particular stimulus or action is encoded by the pattern of activity across a group of neurons, with each neuron contributing a small part to the overall representation.
In the context of motor control, there is evidence for population coding from studies that have examined the activity of neurons in the motor cortex during movement. For example, researchers have found that individual neurons in the motor cortex are not specific to particular movements, but instead contribute to the representation of multiple movements. This suggests that the specific movement being performed is encoded by the combined activity of a population of neurons, with each neuron contributing to the overall representation of the movement.
Additionally, studies have shown that the activity of a population of neurons in the motor cortex can predict the direction and force of upcoming movements, further supporting the idea of population coding in motor control. Overall, the evidence from motor control research suggests that population coding is an important mechanism for representing and controlling movements in the brain.
Give an example of what might happen with microstimulation of the spinal cord.
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VerifiedMovement of a motor effector to a specific spatial location (e.g, foot kicks forward)
Why does the thumb have a larger representation in the motor homunculus than the knee?
(38) VerifiedIt requires more fine-grained control
To reach for a glass, the motor cortex needs to specify a sequence of muscle movements.
(38) The resting tremor associated with Parkinson's disease comes from which of the following:
(31) Describe how the basal ganglia might serve a gating function to the neocortex.
(37) What evidence is there that the posterior parietal cortex might be better classified as a "how" region?
(33) What is the name of fibers that carry information that controls movement along the length of the spinal cord?
(35) Describe what happens in the basal ganglia to account for why Parkinson's patients have difficulty initiating movements.
(35) The "fine-tuning" of movements carried out by the cerebellum is implemented by:
(36) What is the internal model proposed by the Marr-Albus model of cerebellar function?
(33) How do the representations in premotor cortex and supplementary motor cortex differ from those in primary motor cortex?
(31) Which basal ganglia pathway goes through the external segment of the globus pallidus?
(38) 
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