Movements Are Controlled By Muscle Forces

Overview

Class Central Tips

Movements Are Controlled By Muscle Forces is the first course of the specialization "Science of Movement". In this course, we will delve into the mechanisms by which our nervous system communicates with our muscles, allowing us to perform a wide range of coordinated movements with precision. Whether you are a fitness enthusiast, a sports coach, a medical student, or simply curious about the inner workings of your body, this course will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of how the nervous system plays a vital role in enabling our muscles to produce movements. The discussion begins with an explanation of how the activation signal is generated by neurons and then transmitted to targeted muscles. You will learn how the nervous system provides muscles with the activation signals needed to perform movement. You will learn about the contractile properties of motor units and how the force produced by a muscle depends on the amount of motor unit activity. By the end of this course, you will have gained a deep understanding of the intricate relation between the nervous system and muscle activation. You will be equipped with knowledge that can be applied to various fields, such as exercise prescription, sports performance, physical therapy, and neurology.

Syllabus

Excitable Membranes

This week you will be introduced to this course and get started right away with discovering how the nervous system generates and transmits the activation signal needed by muscles to perform movement. You will learn that this ability depends critically on the electrical properties of neurons.

Nerve-Muscle Synapse

In the second week of this course you will learn about the transmission of the electrical activation signal from the nervous system to muscle and how to measure and interpret the resulting activation of muscle. In addition, we will discuss a transport system that moves organelles and proteins away from and toward the soma of a neuron and the functional significance of these actions.

Motor Unit

The third week of the first course establishes the motor unit as the final common pathway between the nervous system and muscle. We will also compare the contracile properties of motor units and emphasize that it is not possible to identify distinct types of motor units even though muscle fibers can be classified into three types.

Control of Muscle Force

The final week for this course examines the strategies used by the nervous system to control muscle force, the influence of muscle design on the force it generates, and the types of muscle contractions used during voluntary actions.