eladyt at tx.technion.ac.il wrote:
>Hello,
>> I have been told that when the spinal cord of a cat is cut, the muscles
>controlled by the cut nerves become rigid. This suggests that motor commands
>to muscle "tell" the muscle how much to relax, and not how much to contract.
>> Could anyone point me to a reference about this phenomena (in cats or
>possibly in humans) ?
It is called decerebrate rigidity and is due to a loss of descending
inhibitory pathways. It does occur in humans. You can read about it in
any textbook of physiology.
J.R.Johnstone (Ray Johnstone)
ray at iinet.com.au
www.iinet.com.au/~ray
