THE CONTROL OF HUMAN MOTOR UNITS

1. The motor unit, consisting of a single motor neuron and the skeleta l muscle fibres that it innervates, is the final output pathway of the motor system. 2. Much is now known about the way that human motor neu rons are recruited and controlled during voluntary and reflex movement s. This review briefly summarizes some of the recent experimental data that has contributed to our present understanding. The review is larg ely limited to data obtained in human experiments. While much of what we know about the organization of the nervous system has come from stu dies of the anatomy and physiology of experimental animals, there are some questions that cannot be addressed in reduced animal preparations . The development of new techniques has made it possible to investigat e the human nervous system at a level of detail that has not hitherto been possible.