Modern Discoveries in Neuroscience... And What They Reveal About You (Collection)

13. Voluntary Motor Control

13-1. Introduction

We now proceed to the examination of neuronal circuits for another category of movements: the voluntary control of arms, hands, and fingers, as commanded by the primary motor cortex. Importantly, this control involves the cerebrocerebellar communication loop that links the primary motor cortex and the intermediate part of the cerebellar hemisphere. This system enables humans to acquire skills for multijointed limb movements with many degrees of freedoms (27 for an arm with a hand and five fingers). Various test paradigms have been designed to study this form of cerebellar control. They include noting movement deficits caused by lesions of the cerebellum or TMS disruption of cerebellar function, and ...