Exam 8: Action

After suffering a focal brain injury, a patient has great difficulty in pantomiming particular motor actions such as turning a key in a lock. Because other problems like hemiplegia, muscle weakness, sensory deficits, and lack of motivation have been ruled out, your diagnosis would be

Lesions to this region of the cerebellum lead to postural instability and difficulty in keeping one's eyes fixed on a visual object despite head or body movements.

With time, people who experience a hemiplegia typically experience a full recovery.

Although simple reflexes can occur without sensory input, the generation of rhythmic walking movements requires sensory feedback from the environment.

Using single-cell recording, a researcher isolates a neuron in the motor cortex of a monkey that is extremely active when the monkey moves its arm from left to right. In subsequent trials, the animal is required to move its arm from the starting to the ending locations diagrammed here. Which, if any, of these additional trials will also increase activity in this neuron?

One major difference between the pyramidal and the extrapyramidal motor tracts is their points of origin. The pyramidal tracts carry messages from _______ to the spinal cord, whereas the extrapyramidal tracts carry messages from _______ to the spinal cord.

Neurons in each half of the cerebellum synapse on _______ targets in the thalamus and other subcortical structures, and therefore regulate the effectors on the _______ side of the body.

Single axons of the corticospinal tract can extend for more than one meter.

Keele's work with people with Parkinson's disease suggests that they may have difficulties in which of the following cognitive operations?

Lesions to the pyramidal motor tract would produce difficulty in moving effectors on which side of the body?

Studies of deafferentation and its effect on movement control in humans and other species demonstrate that

In performing a sequence of complex actions, such as playing the piano, each movement is planned primarily in relation to the immediately preceding and subsequent movements.

When you first learn how to execute the complex motor sequence that comprises a slam dunk in basketball, a circuit including the _______ is active. After much practice, once you have learned the sequence well, a second circuit involving the _______ is active.

In the days following her stroke, Patient E cannot refrain from reaching out and grasping nearby objects even when she has been asked not to do so. This syndrome probably is the result of the abnormal dominance of the __________ loop.

The loss of a motor skill that cannot be attributed to hemiplegia, muscle weakness, sensory deficits, or motivation is called

How is the planning of a complex movement hierarchical? Provide an example.

Hyperkinesia is to _______ as hypokinesia is to _______.

Compare and contrast the neurological disorders of Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease. How are they similar, and how do they differ?

The concept of endpoint control refers to the observation that voluntary muscle events

Parkinson's disease results from cell death in the _______, which is a part of the _______.