The Neurobiology of Motor Control and Development

Catalog description

This 3 credit lecture course provides a rigorous presentation of the neuroscientific foundations of human movement control and coordination. This course introduces students to the cellular basis of neurophysiology, while emphasizing the contributions of both sensory and motor systems to motor control, coordination, and development. The course provides an in-depth presentation of systems neuroscience, with a special emphasis on the spinal, brainstem, and cortical contributions to movement. The course introduces the physiology and functional anatomy of the major sensory systems, motor systems, and sensorimotor integration networks, of the spinal cord, brainstem, and hemispheric structures in the central nervous system. These include spinal circuitry underlying reflexes and central pattern generators, basal ganglia organization and functional networks, cerebellar organization and functional networks, primary, secondary, and tertiary cortical areas associated with sensory and motor functions, neural tracts associated with ascending and descending sensory and motor systems, and cortical-subcortical loops. Students are introduced to dysfunction in these systems from both disease and traumatic processes, due to development disabilities such as cerebral palsy, degenerative processes including Parkinson's Disease, vascular disease including stroke, as well as traumatic brain injury. The overall objective of this course is to prepare Kinesiology students with a foundational level preparation in neuroscience, as required for understanding control of human movement, motor coordination, motor development and dysfunctions in these processes. This course forms one of four 300-level core courses that provide the basic science foundations that underlie the study of human movement, including exercise physiology, biomechanics, and the psychology of movement behavior. Neuroscience represents the fourth foundational discipline that contributes to human movement science. This course is presented from a hierarchical perspective, that introduces the cellular basis of neural communication, as well as cortical, brainstem, and spinal systems that underlie sensorimotor functions. It provides a thorough introduction to the central nervous system, focusing on a systems level approach to sensory and motor physiology and its impact on motor control and coordination, as well as both developmental, degenerative, and traumatic disorders in these processes. Considerations of applications of the material to the fields of athletics and rehabilitation medicine are often provided.