Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-2021

Publication Title

Current Opinion in Physiology

Volume

19

First Page

135

Last Page

140

DOI

10.1016/j.cophys.2020.10.002

Disciplines

Biology | Neuroscience and Neurobiology

Abstract

The muscle spindle is an important sense organ for motor control and proprioception. Specialized intrafusal fibers are innervated by both stretch sensitive afferents and γ motor neurons that control the length of the spindle and tune the sensitivity of the muscle spindle afferents to both dynamic movement and static length. γ motor neurons share many similarities with other skeletal motor neurons, making it challenging to identify and specifically record or stimulate them. This short review will discuss recent advances in genetic and molecular biology techniques, electrophysiological recording, optical imaging, computer modelling, and stem cell culture techniques that have the potential to help answer important questions about fusimotor function in motor control and disease.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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