motor (redirected from motor activity)

motor /mo·tor/ (mōt´er)

1. a muscle, nerve, or center that effects or produces motion.

2. producing or subserving motion.

---

mo·tor (mtr)

adj.

1. Causing or producing motion.

2. Of or being nerves that carry impulses from the nerve centers to the muscles.

3. Involving or relating to movements of the muscles.

4. Of or relating to an organism's overt reaction to a stimulus.

---

Motor

Of or pertaining to motion, the body apparatus involved in movement, or the brain functions that direct purposeful activity.

Mentioned in: Peripheral Neuropathy, Spinal Cord Injury

---

motor

Etymology: L, movere, to move

1 pertaining to motion, the body apparatus involved in movement, or the brain functions that direct purposeful activities.

2 pertaining to a muscle, nerve, or brain center that produces or subserves motion.

---

motor,

n pertaining to a muscle, nerve, or center that produces or affects movement.

motor neuron,

n one of the various efferent nerve cells that transmit nerve impulses from the brain or from the spinal cord to muscular or glandular tissue.

motor neuron disease,

n a progressive disease that tends to affect middle-age men with degeneration of anterior horn cells, motor cranial nerve nuclei, and pyramidal tracts (e.g., amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).

motor output,

n the activity that results from the integrative phenomena associated with brain activity. It is expressed in function as muscle contraction of the smooth and striated muscle and as secretion of the exocrine and endocrine glands and, in effect, represents the total behavioral activity. Whereas sensory phenomena have many avenues that feed into the brain, motor activity is expressed in terms of the simple, direct state of muscle contraction and glandular secretion. Thus muscle activity is expressed in terms of locomotion, hand-learned skills, speaking, mastication, and all forms of activity that involve motion.

motor pathway,

n all reflex actions of muscle are achieved by the passage of nerve impulses through the final common pathway–the muscle fibers. The lower motor neuron (the motor route of the cranial nerve) is the final pathway for the structures that are innervated by the cranial nerves. Impulses traverse these nerves to their respective muscles from every level of the spinal cord, hindbrain, midbrain, and cerebral cortex. The cranial motor neurons collate these multiple stimuli and transmit sequences of stimuli to the motor end-plate, which in the normal muscle effects a smooth, continuous, controlled contraction.

motor skill,

n the ability to make the purposeful movements that are necessary to complete or master a prescribed task.

motor unit,

n the entity consisting of the lower motor neuron, motor end-plate, and muscle fibers supplied by the end-plate. The final motor activity resulting from a sequence of stimulations to the lower motor neuron is considered a function of the motor unit. The proportion of nerve fibers to the muscle fibers in motor units is designated as the innervation ratio. They may have ratios ranging from 1:4 to 1:150. The closer the ratio approximates unity, the greater the finesse of specificity of the muscular action. The eye muscles have the highest ratio of striated muscles, and the tongue, facial, masticatory, and pharyngeal muscles succeed in that order.

---

motor

1. pertaining to motion.

2. a muscle, nerve or center that effects movements.

---

motor activity

limb movement the most obvious of these forms of activity.

motor alpha-neuron

ventral spinal cord neurons which innervate skeletal muscle. Called also final common pathway, lower motor neuron.

motor depressant anticonvulsant

a drug that depresses motor activity and hence prevents convulsions, e.g. phenobarbital sodium, phenytoin sodium.

motor dysfunction

abnormality of the motor system.

motor end-plate

sites of neuraptic transmission of acetylcholine from nerve to muscle receptors.

motor fibers

innervate the body effectors.

motor lubricating oil

ingestion may cause lead poisoning.

motor nerve conduction

the transmission of impulses along motor nerves to skeletal muscle.

motor unit

includes the motor neuron, neuromuscular junction, and the myofibrils innervated by the neuron.

motor unit action potential

the electrical activity of voluntary muscle contractions recorded by needle electromyography.