Since the prefrontal cortex receives many afferents from limbic brain structures involved in emotional activity, one might argue that the somatic motor system is also a tool for the emotional brain to satisfy its needs. The prefrontal cortex might play an essential role in deciding whether or not a motor activity is necessary to react to a certain situation. The question is what drives the somatic motor system. In most mammals, both the lateral corticospinal and the rubrospinal pathways are important, but in humans the rubrospinal pathway seems to be irrelevant ( Fig. This descending system enables humans to make most refined and extremely complex movements, such as independent finger movements and speech, the most complicated motor performance. The motoneurons innervating the muscles of the distal limbs receive the strongest direct projections from the motor cortex.
It controls the motoneurons via direct projections as well as indirectly via strong projections to the laterally located premotor interneurons. In humans, the lateral corticospinal pathway subserves the control of the independent movements of the extremities. This component consists of two pathways-the lateral corticospinal and the rubrospinal pathways. The lateral component of the somatic motor system controls the premotor interneurons and motoneurons of the distal muscles. GERRITS, in The Human Nervous System (Second Edition), 2004 Lateral Component of the Somatic Motor System
0 kommentar(er)
