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
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.
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Mouse Neuromuscular Junction
Neurons communicate with muscles in special kinds of connections called neuromuscular junctions. These exchanges help muscles to flex.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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
Quadriceps Nerve
Glial cells provide insulation for nerve cells and help them communicate with one another. Using mouse muscle nerves, scientists studied the role of specific proteins in the growth of these cells.
  • BrainFacts/SfN

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