Motor goal

A motor goal is a neurally planned motor outcome that is used to organize motor control.

Motor goals are experimentally shown to exist since planned movements can when disrupted adjust to achieve their planned outcome. If, for example, a person makes a movement of their hand to touch or grasp something and unexpected their arm is pushed – their brain automatically reorganizes the movement so it so achieves its intended aim. This also occurs if an arm is perturbed which results in an automatic correction that enables it to fulfill its planned spatial-temporal target.[1] If a lip articulating a consonant is knocked, the vocal apparatus makes a target related correction of movement.[2] Spoken words are sequences of motor movements organized around motor targets.[3] The motor cortex is involved in such compensatory adjustment of speech articulation.[4]

  1. ^ Haggard, P.; Wing, A. (1995). "Coordinated responses following mechanical perturbation of the arm during prehension". Experimental Brain Research. Experimentelle Hirnforschung. Experimentation Cerebrale. 102 (3): 483–494. doi:10.1007/bf00230652. PMID 7737394. S2CID 34541046.
  2. ^ Gracco, V. L.; Löfqvist, A. (1994). "Speech motor coordination and control: Evidence from lip, jaw, and laryngeal movements". The Journal of Neuroscience. 14 (11 Pt 1): 6585–6597. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.14-11-06585.1994. PMC 6577236. PMID 7965062.
  3. ^ Shaffer LH. (1984). Motor programming in language production. In H. Bouma & D. G. Bouwhuis, (Eds), Attention and performance, X. (pp. (17-41). London, Erlbaum. ISBN 978-0-86377-005-0
  4. ^ Ito, T.; Kimura, T.; Gomi, H. (2005). "The motor cortex is involved in reflexive compensatory adjustment of speech articulation". NeuroReport. 16 (16): 1791–1794. doi:10.1097/01.wnr.0000185956.58099.f4. PMID 16237328. S2CID 14981462.