Reflection on the Physiological Mechanisms of Movements Controlled by the Spinal Cord – Brain Interaction

Overview

The process of communication between brain and spinal cord remains unclear. Therefore an attempt supported by spinal cord stereotaxy was made to disclose the physiological mechanism underlying the cooperation between brain and spine as generated by the spinal cord. The initializing stimulus was the discovery of motoneuron location in all spinal cord segments providing the organic substrate for spinal cord stereotaxy. What remained to be clarified were the anatomical structures of spinal cord, participating in the feedback between brain and spinal cord. Therefore two possible hypotheses were proposed by the authors.

One is closely related to the analytic-synthetic mechanism of real object and thoughts depiction in the memory of the brain and in the form of concrete ideas forming the basis for concrete thinking. In the case of spinal cord, another more probable mechanism should be considered: The process of analysis and synthesis between the participating spinal motoneurons. The mutual neuronal connections in the spinal cord are capable of depicting the movement pattern and the movement is transferred by means of the described spinal cord pathways to the memory of the brain as a concrete movement idea. From here the ideas are transferred according to the individual needs backwards by means of another described spinal cord pathways back to the spinal cord and the spinal cord is the final effector.

The process of thinking is the physiological correlate of technical software, but in the form of abstract thinking it is transferred to the form of abstract thinking. 

Key word:
movement mechanism, spinal cord and brain cooperation, spinal cord stereotaxy.