The Neuroscience of Muscle Memory (How the Muscle Remember How you Play the Guitar)

over 1 year ago

Did you remember the first time you rode a bicycle? You were very cautious and didn't want to fall. Your brain was monitoring everything you had to needed to do to be safe with the exercise. This same thing applies to running, jumping, and doing everything exercise. Your brain is very cautious to ensure that you are not going to hurt yourselves but over time, you start to do these things without paying much attention to them and you also begin to love them as you do them that you could feel very comfortable with doing the muscle-related activity without worrying. How do skeletal muscles and the brain sync?

Let me quickly do a very simple explanation about skeletal muscles before we continue. Skeletal muscles are muscles that are voluntary and are attached to the bones of the skeleton. They are responsible for moving the skeleton. They are called striated muscles (skeletal and cardiac muscles) due to their stripped appearance under a microscope. These muscles contract and relaxes in the response to brain signals as well as signals from the spinal cord. They are made up of long cylindrical cells called muscle fibers which are made up of myofibrils which are made up of smaller units called myofilaments, which are composed of proteins known as actin and myosin. The contraction of the muscles makes them shorter and thicker which causes the bone in the skeleton to be pulled towards itself, allowing for the joint to move, and when the muscles relax, it lengthens and muscles become thinner. When one muscle contracts, the other muscle relaxes.

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It is important to know that for everything that you do with your muscles, they do not have a memory of their own, there is something known as Muscle memory, and I will get into that in a bit but before then, there are over 600 skeletal muscles, and these muscles are essential for maintaining posture, balancing and movement. It is important in producing heat and breathing. Remember I talked about muscle memory, in this post, I want to discuss the neurological effect on muscles, and to do this, I will be discussing Motor Learning and Motor Development.

Motor development has to do with the maturation of the nervous system and sensory systems and the ability to acquire and improve new physical skills. These skills include movement, balancing, and coordinating movement. Motor development starts in the womb, and it doesn't stop after the child is born, it continues as the child grows. While Motor development is relatively normal and would happen in every healthy and normal human, motor learning is kind of different.

Motor learning, has to do with how the brain changes in the brain and nervous system to allow individuals to perform tasks and movements more efficiently and effectively. To do this, I will be looking at the primary motor cortex, the supplementary motor cortex or pre-motor cortex, and the primary somatosensory cortex. The primary motor cortex is located in the frontal lobe of the brain, referred to as the Motor strip as well as the Precentral gyrus. It is responsible for controlling voluntary movements. The supplementary motor cortex also found in the frontal lobe of the brain is also involved in the execution and voluntary movement of muscles. The primary somatosensory cortex is located in the parietal lobe, responsible for processing and integrating sensory information into the body.

In the cerebral cortex, there is a cell known as the large pyramidal cells which are responsible for the processing and integration of sensory and motor information. In the cerebral cortex is the Upper motor neurin which is responsible for transmitting signals that controls and coordinate movement and muscles from the brain to the lower motor neuron in the spinal cord. Located in the primary motor cortex, they receive signals from the brain and sends the output of the signal to the lower motor nerons which innervates specific muscles through axons which extends from the spinal cord to the muscles.

Not forgetting the Cerebelum (little brain) which is located below the Cerebrum. It is another important part of the brain responsible for controlling movement, posture, balance and coordination. The cerebellum receives incoming information from the sensory neurons and organs. The muscles of the arm and leg is controlled by the lobules which is the smaller hemisphere of the cerebellum. The basal ganglia in the Lateral ventricle, which is connected to the cerebral cortex, the thalamus, and the brainstem, is also responsible for controlling movement, and modulate the information sent to the brain from the sensory neuron. The more you use a pathway, the more the brain is able to do the index calculation.

Remember I talked about muscle memory? I will be explaining that first with myelination which is the process in which an axon or pathway get efficient signals and become thicker the more it is being used. When a person keeps performing a particular activity repeatedly, the myelination continues to increase. With myelination, the body gets used to performing repeated tasks without full concentration to it, as a result of continuous practice. For instance when you play a musical instrument, you realize that it becomes easier as you keep playing it over nd over again to the extent that you can play them without full concentration. This is known as muscle memory. This is similar to athletes who perform repeated teasks from practicing, they become very efficient with the activities that they can do it when not really paying close attention to the activity. The brain, without you putting much concern to it helps prioritize by itself what you do regularly without you putting much attention.

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