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Motor Control

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Neurosciences - From Molecule to Behavior: a university textbook

Abstract

Survival depends upon efficient motor control behaviors which enable organisms to navigate through their environment, search for food, find a mate and avoid predation. In this chapter we provide an overview of motor systems that generate movements in a range of different animals. In vertebrates and invertebrates alike motor systems are similar: central networks drive motoneurons to fire which in turn elicit contractions in skeletal muscles to articulate the joints of the limbs or segments of the body. Biomechanical constraints influence behavior, and once behavior is produced sensory information is generated that feeds back and in turn modulates motor control. The components of motor systems, including motoneurons, muscles with their electrical and mechanical properties as well as sensory feedback are present across different phyla but the ways in which they are assembled during development have been sculpted into different species-specific solutions by the forces of natural selection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biology, Neurobiology, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Str. 28-30, 14195, Berlin, Germany

    Hans-Joachim Pflüger

  2. School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, Carnegie Wing, Bute Building, St Andrews, KY16 9TS, Scotland, UK

    Keith Sillar

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  1. Hans-Joachim Pflüger
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Correspondence to Hans-Joachim Pflüger .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of Neurobiology, Universität Konstanz, Universitätsstrasse 10, Konstanz, 78457, Germany

    C. Giovanni Galizia

  2. Labo. Perception et Mémoire, Institut Pasteur, rue du Dr. Roux 25, Paris CX 15, 75724, France

    Pierre-Marie Lledo

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Pflüger, HJ., Sillar, K. (2013). Motor Control. In: Galizia, C., Lledo, PM. (eds) Neurosciences - From Molecule to Behavior: a university textbook. Springer Spektrum, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10769-6_23

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