Key Steps in the Evolution of Mammalian Movement: A Prolegomenal Essay

Brownstone, Robert M.

doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2020.05.020

Cited by 10 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Given that the spinal cord is comprised of neural circuits that control the basic “syllables” of movement ( 27 ), and the motor signs of dystonia result from abnormal control of these fundamental components of movement, there was clear logic in considering that spinal circuit dysfunction leads to the signs of DYT1- TOR1A . In fact, there are seeds of substantiation sprinkled through the literature that point to spinal circuit dysfunction.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pathophysiology of Dyt1 dystonia is mediated by spinal cord dysfunction

Pocratsky

Nascimento

Özyurt

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Dystonia, a neurological disorder defined by abnormal postures and disorganised movements, is thought to be a neural circuit disorder with dysfunction arising within and between multiple brain regions. Given that spinal circuits are the de facto final common pathway for motor control, we sought to determine their contribution to the movement disorder. We confined a dystonia-related mutation to the spinal cord, which led to behavioural and physiological recapitulation of a severe form of inherited, early-onset, generalised dystonia. These data challenge our current understanding of dystonia, and lead to broader insights into spinal cord function and its involvement in movement disorder pathophysiology.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pathophysiology of Dyt1 dystonia is mediated by spinal cord dysfunction

Pocratsky

Nascimento

Özyurt

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…Animals perform rich repertoires of movements through controlling muscle contractions around joints to produce the fundamental syllables of movement ( Brownstone, 2020 ). To understand how behavioural repertoires are formed, it is important to understand the organization of the neural circuits underlying the production of each syllable.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The three basic syllables are: (1) changing a joint angle, (2) stiffening a joint, and (3) relaxing a joint. The concatenation of these syllables across joints within and between limbs ultimately produces behaviour ( Brownstone, 2020 ; Wiltschko et al, 2015 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Proximal and distal spinal neurons innervating multiple synergist and antagonist motor pools

Ronzano

Lancelin

Bhumbra

et al. 2021

eLife

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Motoneurons (MNs) control muscle contractions, and their recruitment by premotor circuits is tuned to produce accurate motor behaviours. To understand how these circuits coordinate movement across and between joints, it is necessary to understand whether spinal neurons pre-synaptic to motor pools have divergent projections to more than one MN population. Here, we used modified rabies virus tracing in mice to investigate premotor interneurons projecting to synergist flexor or extensor MNs, as well as those projecting to antagonist pairs of muscles controlling the ankle joint. We show that similar proportions of premotor neurons diverge to synergist and antagonist motor pools. Divergent premotor neurons were seen throughout the spinal cord, with decreasing numbers but increasing proportion with distance from the hindlimb enlargement. In the cervical cord, divergent long descending propriospinal neurons were found in contralateral lamina VIII, had large somata, were neither glycinergic, nor cholinergic, and projected to both lumbar and cervical MNs. We conclude that distributed spinal premotor neurons coordinate activity across multiple motor pools and that there are spinal neurons mediating co-contraction of antagonist muscles.

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“…The 3 basic syllables are: (1) changing a joint angle, (2) stiffening a joint, and (3) relaxing a joint. The concatenation of these syllables across joints within and between limbs ultimately produces behaviour (Brownstone, 2020; Wiltschko et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spinal neurons innervating multiple local and distant motor pools

Ronzano

Lancelin

Bhumbra

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Motor neurons control muscle contractions, and their recruitment by premotor circuits is tuned to produce accurate motor behaviours. To understand how these circuits coordinate movement across and between joints, it is necessary to understand whether spinal neurons pre-synaptic to motor pools, project to more than one motor neuron population. Here, we used modified rabies virus tracing in mice to investigate premotor INs projecting to synergist flexor or extensor motor neurons, as well as those projecting to antagonist pairs of muscles controlling the ankle joint. We show that similar proportions of premotor neurons diverge to agonist and antagonist motor pools. Divergent premotor neurons were seen throughout the spinal cord, with decreasing numbers but increasing proportion with distance from the hindlimb enlargement. In the cervical cord, divergent long descending propriospinal neurons were found in contralateral lamina VIII, had large somata, were excitatory, projected to both lumbar and cervical motoneurons, and were at least in part of the V0 class. We conclude that distributed spinal premotor neurons coordinate activity across multiple motor pools and that there are spinal neurons mediating co-contraction of antagonist muscles.

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Key Steps in the Evolution of Mammalian Movement: A Prolegomenal Essay

Cited by 10 publications

References 46 publications

Pathophysiology of Dyt1 dystonia is mediated by spinal cord dysfunction

Pathophysiology of Dyt1 dystonia is mediated by spinal cord dysfunction

Proximal and distal spinal neurons innervating multiple synergist and antagonist motor pools

Spinal neurons innervating multiple local and distant motor pools

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