Journal article
Linear combinations of primitives in vertebrate motor control
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, v 91(16), pp 7534-7538
02 Aug 1994
PMID: 8052615
Abstract
Recent investigations on the spinalized frog have provided evidence suggesting that the neural circuits in the spinal cord are organized into a number of distinct functional modules. We have investigated the rule that governs the coactivation of two such modules. To this end, we have developed an experimental paradigm that involves the simultaneous stimulation of two sites in the frog's spinal cord and the quantitative comparison of the resulting mechanical response with the summation of the responses obtained from the stimulation of each site. We found that the simultaneous stimulation of two sites leads to the vector summation of the endpoint forces generated by each site separately. This linear behavior is quite remarkable and provides strong support to the view that the central nervous system may generate a wide repertoire of motor behaviors through the vectorial superposition of a few motor primitives stored within the neural circuits in the spinal cord.
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Details
- Title
- Linear combinations of primitives in vertebrate motor control
- Creators
- F A Mussa-Ivaldi - Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 02139-4307S F Giszter - Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 02139-4307E Bizzi - Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 02139-4307
- Publication Details
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, v 91(16), pp 7534-7538
- Publisher
- PNAS
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Neurobiology and Anatomy
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:A1994PA37600033
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-0028169882
- Other Identifier
- 991014878137304721
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- Web of Science research areas
- Neurosciences