Movement

Related Topics Diet and Lifestyle Body Systems Anatomy
Image of a nerve bundle
The Wiring Behind Your Reflexes
It doesn’t take brainpower to react to sudden danger; just a bit of spine.
  • BrainFacts/SfN
Your selections: Movement
Sensing Space or Moving Muscles?
Scientists are rethinking the role of nerve endings once thought to be involved in providing spatial information to the brain.
  • BrainFacts/SfN
Speedy Science: How Fast Can You React?
Think fast! Figure out your brain’s reaction time with this activity.
  • Scientific American
Brain and Behavior Lesson Plan
Students are introduced to brain structure, neurotransmitters, hormones, and neural networks in this nine part lesson.
  • Baylor College of Medicine
Swimming Zebrafish
Neurons in the brain and spinal cord cooperate to control complex movements, such as walking or swimming. Studying simple animals helps us understand how motion develops.
  • BrainFacts/SfN
Mouse Neuromuscular Junction
Neurons communicate with muscles in special kinds of connections called neuromuscular junctions. These exchanges help muscles to flex.
  • BrainFacts/SfN
Sea Slug Teeth
The giant sea slug Apylsia has a simple nervous system that makes them a useful model for neuroscience research. They also have rows of tiny sharp teeth, which cover a tongue-like structure.
  • BrainFacts/SfN
Why do some people toss and turn during sleep if your body is "paralyzed" to keep you from reenacting dreams?
Tossing and turning generally occurs during very brief arousals from sleep during the night.
  • BrainFacts/SfN
Movement: An Overview
From the stands at sports events, we marvel at the actions of athletes. But in fact, each of us in our daily activities performs a host of complex, skilled movements that are just as remarkable.
  • BrainFacts/SfN
More Complex Movements
Networks of spinal neurons also participate in controlling the alternating action of the legs during normal walking, maintaining posture, and, to a large degree, in all movements.
  • BrainFacts/SfN
Involuntary Movements
Perhaps the simplest and most fundamental movements are reflexes. These are relatively fixed, automatic muscle responses to particular stimuli, such as the slight extension of the leg when a physician taps the knee with a small rubber hammer.
  • BrainFacts/SfN
National Geographic: The Brain
This interactive web resource has articles with photos and demonstrations about how the brain processes information from our bodies, generates thoughts and emotions, stores and recalls memories, and controls movement. Also, watch a video about how scientists store and use donated brain tissue.
  • National Geographic
Probe the Brain
Beginning in the 1940s, Canadian brain surgeon Wilder Penfield mapped the brain's motor cortex -- the area that controls the movement of your body's muscles. Now you can relive his exploration of the brain.
  • PBS

3D Brain

An interactive brain map that you can rotate in a three-dimensional space.
Interact with the Brain

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