We will look at the organization of the upper and lower motor neurons and their interaction in coordinating movement throughout skeletal muscle. We will also research the link between the basal ganglia and the specific roles of partcular basal ganglia nuclei in movement intiation of the upper motor neuron (and their subsequent affect on the lower motor neurons), and also if they play a role at all in suppression of unwanted movements. Motor components of the basal ganglia in cooperation with other neurons form a subcortical loop that links most areas of the cerebral cortex with the upper motor neurons in the primary motor cortex, the premotor cortex and the brain stem. The neurons which make up the loop change their activity in anticipation of and during movement. The subcortical loop and the neurons which are responsible for its formation will be an area of research regarding premovement neuronal activity. In addition, we may also research the cerebellum and its role in sensory coordination.
Experimentation on the frontal cortex of monkeys has been done regarding the differences in the neuronal activity prior to movements which are triggered by visual stimuli versus the responses to non-triggered or self paced signals. In these experiments, they found neuronal activity changes called short lead and long lead changes which occur at different times before the movement occurs. They found these neuronal activity changes in the supplementary motor area (SMA), the pre-motor area (PM), the primary motor cortex and the pre-central motor cortex (MC). We will further investigate these types of neuronal activity changes which occur prior to movement, as well as the different areas in the brain and the roles they play in coordinating movement.
Supplementary research done on monkeys also using both the triggered stimuli versus the self paced stimuli found three defined periods of the specific neuronal activity defined as the delay period, the premovement period and the movement period. These will be further investigated to determine their role in coordinating signals preceding movement.
Further research found multiple parameters in the brain that are linked to controlling the activity of the premovement neurons. These parameters include, but are most likely not limited to: motor preparation, stimulus and/or reward anticipation, orientation of spatial attention (also referred to as direction of gaze), working memory, inhibition of motor responses, programming of the target of movement, temporal processing, and corollary discharge.
For the division of the workload, we will each be responsible for preliminary and general research and informing/emailing the other members the information and articles/journals we have found. From here we will specifically divide the research either by topics of interest and/or evenly distributing the parameters listed above.