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A motor neuron (or motoneuron or efferent neuron [1]) is a neuron whose cell body is located in the motor cortex, brainstem or the spinal cord, and whose axon (fiber) projects to the spinal cord or outside of the spinal cord to directly or indirectly control effector organs, mainly muscles and glands. [2]
Betz cells (also known as pyramidal cells of Betz) are giant pyramidal cells located within the fifth layer of the grey matter in the primary motor cortex.These neurons are the largest in the central nervous system, sometimes reaching 100 μm in diameter.
In that view, a neuron in the motor cortex sends an axon or projection to the spinal cord and forms a synapse on a motor neuron. The motor neuron sends an electrical impulse to a muscle. When the neuron in the cortex becomes active, it causes a muscle contraction. The greater the activity in the motor cortex, the stronger the muscle force.
With their flask-shaped cell bodies, many branching dendrites, and a single long axon, these cells are essential for controlling motor activity. Purkinje cells mainly release GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) neurotransmitter, which inhibits some neurons to reduce nerve impulse transmission. Purkinje cells efficiently control and coordinate the ...
A neuroeffector junction is a site where a motor neuron releases a neurotransmitter to affect a target—non-neuronal—cell. This junction functions like a synapse. However, unlike most neurons, somatic efferent motor neurons innervate skeletal muscle, and are always excitatory.
Central pattern generators are groups of neurons in the spinal cord that are responsible for generating stereotyped movement. It has been shown that in cats, rhythmic activation patterns are still observed following removal of sensory afferents and removal of the brain., [1] indicating that there is neural pattern generation in the spinal cord independent of descending signals from the brain ...
F-waves are able to assess both afferent and efferent loops of the alpha motor neuron in its entirety. [5] As such, various properties of F-wave motor nerve conduction are analyzed in nerve conduction studies (NCS), [6] and often used to assess polyneuropathies, resulting from states of neuronal demyelination and loss of peripheral axonal ...
At the time of Henneman’s initial study of motor neuron recruitment, [1] it was known that neurons varied greatly in size, that is in the diameter and extent of the dendritic arbor, size of the soma, and diameter of axon. However, the functional significance of neuron size was not yet known.