Motor Behavior Chapter 1

1. What is motor control?

The study of the nature of movement and how movement is controlled; the ability to regulate or direct mechanisms essential to movement.

2. Why should therapists study motor control?

Understanding normal and abnormal movement is critical for clinical practice in physical and occupational therapy.

What are the three components of the nature of movement?

Individual, task and environment

3. What are the motor/action systems?

Neuromuscular and biomechanical systems that control functional movement.

4. What is perception?

The integration of sensory impressions into psychologically meaningful information.

5. Why are sensory/perceptual systems important?

They provide information about the body and environment necessary for effective movement.

6. What cognitive systems are involved in motor control?

Attention, planning, problem solving, motivation, and emotional processes.

7. What is an open movement/task?

A movement performed in a constantly changing and unpredictable environment.

Example: Catching a ball during a game.

8. What is a closed movement/task?

A movement performed in a relatively fixed or predictable environment.

Example: Walking on a treadmill.

9. What are regulatory environmental features?

Aspects of the environment that directly shape movement.

10. What are nonregulatory environmental features?

Environmental aspects that may affect performance but do not require movement adaptation.

11. What is a theory of motor control?

A group of abstract ideas explaining how movement is controlled.

What is a theory?

Set of interconnected statements that

describe unobservable structures or

processes and relate them to each other

and to observable events

12. Why are theories important in clinical practice?

They provide frameworks for interpreting behavior and guiding treatment.

14. What does Reflex Theory propose?

Complex behavior

explained through combined action of individual reflexes chained toegether

15. What are the three parts of a reflex?

Receptor, conductor, and effector.

16. What are limitations of Reflex Theory?

• Reflex activated by outside agent

• Does not explain and predict movement that occurs in absence of sensory stimulus

• Does not explain fast movements

• Fails to explain how single stimulus can result in varying responses

• Does not explain ability to produce novel movements

17. What are the clinical implications of Reflex Theory?

• Strategies to test reflexes should allow therapists to predict function

-Patient's movement behaviors interpreted in terms of presence or absence of controlling reflexes

• Enhancing or reducing effect of reflexes during motor tasks

18. What is Hierarchical Theory?

A top-down control model where higher brain centers control lower centers.

What is vertical hierarchy?

Lines of control do not

cross; never bottom-up control

19. What is a limitation of Hierarchical Theory?

Cannot explain dominance of reflex behavior in certain situations in normal adults

20. Clinical implication of Hierarchical Theory?

Helps explain motor dysfunction in neurologic disorders.

21. What is a motor program?

A central pattern of movement that can be activated by sensory input or central processes.

22. What is the key idea of Motor Programming Theory?

If motor response is removed from its stimulus, result is concept of central motor

pattern

What is central motor pattern (motor programming theory)?

Is a more flexible than concept of a reflex; activated by sensory stimuli or central processes

23. Limitation of Motor Programming Theory?

Cannot be considered sole determinant of action

24. Clinical implication of Motor Programming Theory?

Allowed clinicians to move beyond reflex explanation for disordered motor control.

• Retraining movements important to functional task, not just on reeducating specific muscles in isolation

What is the key idea of system theory?

You cannot understand neural

control of movement without understanding the system you are moving and the external

and internal forces acting on the body

• Coordination of movement: process of mastering the redundant degrees of freedom of the moving organism

26. What is the degrees of freedom problem?

The challenge of coordinating many moving body parts.

27. What are synergies?

Groups of muscles/joints working together to simplify movement control.

28. What is the principle of abundance? (In system theory)

Redundant movement options allow flexible and stable motor performance.

29. What is self-organization? (In system theory)

when system of individual parts comes together, elements behave collectively in an ordered way

30. What is a nonlinear system?

A system where output is not proportional to input.

What is Dynamic theory in system theory?

A new movement emerges

because of a critical change in one of the systems (control parameter)

31. What is a control parameter? (In system theory)

A variable that regulates changes in the entire movement system.

32. What are attractor states? (In system theory)

Stable and preferred movement patterns.

33. How does Systems Theory view variability?

Variability is necessary for optimal function, not simply error.

34. Limitation of Systems Theory?

Presumption that the nervous system is less important in determining the animal's

behavior

35. Clinical implication of Systems Theory?

Stresses on understanding the body as a mechanical system

• Movement is an emergent property

• Retraining movement in patients with neural pathology

36. What does Ecological Theory propose?

Motor control evolved so that animals could cope with their environment

• Broadened the understanding of nervous system function

37. What is emphasized in Ecological Theory?

The perception-action relationship.

38. Clinical implication of Ecological Theory?

Describing individual as an active explorer of

environment

What are the limitations of Ecological theory?

Research emphasis shifted from nervous system to organism-environment interface

39. Which motor control theory is best?

No single theory is sufficient; the best approach combines multiple theories.

40. What is the systems approach?

Movement emerges from interactions among the individual, task, and environment.

What is a scientific Theory?

Provides a framework that allows integration of practical ideas into a coherent philosophy for intervention

41. What is neurofacilitation? Reflex-Based

Neurofacilitation Approaches

Retraining motor control

through techniques designed to facilitate and/or inhibit different movement patterns

42. What is facilitation?

Intervention techniques that

increase the patient's ability to move in ways judged to be appropriate by the clinician

43. What is the task-oriented approach?

A rehabilitation approach focusing on functional tasks and interaction among systems.

44. How does the task-oriented approach view normal movement?

As the result of interaction among many systems constrained by goals and environment.

45. How does the task-oriented approach explain abnormal movement?

movement problems result from impairments within

one or more of the systems controlling movement

46. What is essential when retraining movement?

Practicing meaningful functional tasks.

47. How do patients learn according to the task-oriented approach?

By actively solving movement problems rather than simple repetition.