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EXERCISE THERAPY Assignment - Motor Control

The hierarchical theory of motor control proposes that the central nervous system is organized in hierarchical levels, with higher association areas controlling lower motor cortex and spinal levels. Hughlings Jackson first argued for this view in the late 19th century. Later researchers explored reflexes at different levels and how damage allows lower reflexes to dominate. This led to the formal hierarchical theory. It has since been modified to allow more flexibility and bidirectional control between levels depending on task demands. The theory helped explain disordered movement after brain injuries.

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102 views

EXERCISE THERAPY Assignment - Motor Control

The hierarchical theory of motor control proposes that the central nervous system is organized in hierarchical levels, with higher association areas controlling lower motor cortex and spinal levels. Hughlings Jackson first argued for this view in the late 19th century. Later researchers explored reflexes at different levels and how damage allows lower reflexes to dominate. This led to the formal hierarchical theory. It has since been modified to allow more flexibility and bidirectional control between levels depending on task demands. The theory helped explain disordered movement after brain injuries.

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Apoorv
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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EXERCISE THERAPY ASSIGNMENT

EXPLAIN HIERARCHIAL THEORY OF MOTOR CONTROL


BY: APOORV GARG
B. P. T. 2ND YEAR
ROLL NO. 04
20TH BATCH

HIERARCHIAL THEORY OF MOTOR


CONTROL
DEFINITION:
The hierarchical theory states that the central nervous system
(CNS) is organised in hierarchical levels such that the higher
association areas are followed by the motor cortex, followed
by the spinal levels of motor function. Each higher level
controls the level below it according to strict vertical
hierarchy; the lines of control do not cross, and lower levels
cannot exert control.
HISTORY OF HIERARCHIAL THEORY
1. Many Researchers contributed to the views that nervous
system is organized as hierarchy.
2. Among them, Hughlings Jackson, an English Physician
argued that brain has higher, middle and lower levels of
control, equated with higher association areas, the motor
cortex and spinal levels of motor function.
3. In 1920s, Rudolf Magnus began to explore the function of
different reflexes within different parts of nervous system.
He found that reflexes controlled by lower levels of neural
hierarchy are present only when the cortical centres are
damaged.
4. These results were later interpreted to imply that reflexes
are part of a hierarchy of motor control, in which higher
centres normally inhibit these lower reflex centres.
5. In 1928, Georg Schaltenbrand, used Magnus’s concepts to
explain development of mobility in children and adults. He
described the development of human mobility in terms of
appearance and disappearance of a progression of
hierarchically organized reflexes.
6. According to Georg Schaltenbrand, complete
understanding of all reflexes would allow the
determination of the neural age of a child or of a patient
with motor control dysfunction.
7. In late 1930s, Stephan Weisz reported on hierarchically
organized reflex reactions that he thought were the basis
for equilibrium in humans. He described the ontogeny of
equilibrium reflexes in normally developing children and
proposed a relationship between maturation of these
reflexes and the child’s capacity to sit, stand and walk.
8. The results of these experiments and observations were
drawn together and are often referred to as
HIERARCHIAL THEORY OF MOTOR CONTROL.
9. In the 1940s, Gesell and McGraw came up with the
Neuromaturational theory of development. According
to them, normal motor development is attributed to
increasing corticalisation of the CNS that gives rise to the
appearance of higher levels of control over the lower level
reflexes. CNS maturation is the main agent of change in
development, with only minimal input from other factors.

CURRENT CONCEPTS RELATED TO HIERARCHY


THEORY
1. Concept of strict hierarchy has been modified.
2. Within this modification, the association cortex works at the
highest level, where perception and planning strategies are
elaborated.
3. The sensory-motor cortex in association with the portions of
basal ganglia, brain stem and cerebellum works at middle level,
where strategies are converted into motor strategies and
commands.
4. The spinal cord functions at lower level, translating commands
into muscle actions resulting in the execution of movement.
5. Modern Hierarchical theory proposes that the three levels
do not operate in a rigid, top-down order but rather as a
flexible system in which each level can exert control on
others. Shifts in control are dependent on the demands and
complexity of the task with the higher centres always
assuming control.

LIMITATIONS OF HIERARCHIAL THEORY


1. This theory cannot explain dominance of reflex behaviour in
certain situations in normal adults.
2. E.g. Stepping on a pin results in immediate withdrawal of leg.
This is an example of a reflex within the lowest level of
hierarchy dominating motor function. Also, it is an example of
bottom-up control.
3. Thus one must be cautious about assumptions that all lower
level reflex behaviour are primitive, immature and non-adaptive
while all higher reflex behaviours are mature, adaptive and
appropriate.
CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS
1. Signe Brunnstrom, a physical therapist who pioneered early
stroke rehabilitation, used a reflex hierarchical theory to
describe disordered movement following a motor cortex lesion.
2. She stated “When the influence of higher centres is temporarily
or permanently interfered with, normal reflexes become
exaggerated and so called pathological reflexes occur”.
3. Bertha Bobath, an English physical therapist, in her discussions
of abnormal postural reflex activity in children with cerebral
palsy stated that “The release of motor responses integrated at
lower levels from restraining influences of higher centres,
especially that of cortex, leads to abnormal postural reflex
activity”.
THANK
YOU

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