BSc Biology with Industrial/Professional Experience

Motor Systems provides an understanding of how the central nervous system plans and controls movement. You will study topics including muscle contraction, spinal reflexes, the control of movement by different areas of the brain and neurological diseases which affect movement.

This course aims to explain our current understanding of how the mammalian nervous system plans and executes movements, with particular reference to the human case. Topics will include the anatomy, physiology and cellular basis of the motor systems, spanning from muscles contraction to spinal reflexes, cortical and sub-cortical control of movement and how certain neurological diseases affect movement. In this way, the students will be exposed to the many levels of motor control, and will acquire a critical knowledge of what we know (or don’t yet know) about the structure and function of human motor control systems.

• By the end of this course students should be able to critically assess the current knowledge of motor control and to communicate these topics in a concise manner that recognises the limitations of current hypotheses.

Students should also have acquired the following skills:

• an understanding of the motor systems at a variety of levels (from cellular to systems neuroscience).
• an accurate understanding of the different strategies used by the nervous system to control movement.
• an understanding of the different roles played by muscles, the spinal cord, midbrain, cortex, cerebellum and basal ganglia in the organisation of movement.
• A critical knowledge of the different experimental methods used to investigate motor control.

The syllabus will cover a broad range of topics focused on the physiology, cellular biology and anatomy of the mammalian motor systems. The lectures will describe the fundamental biology of motor systems and how this can be applied to enhance our understanding of human motor-related diseases and technologies (such as brain-machine interfaces). In brief, this course will cover:
•    Muscle contractions
•    Motor Units
•    Spinal interneurons and spinal reflexes
•    Motor neuron diseases
•    Proprioception and motor control
•    Rhythmic movements
•    Voluntary control and descending pathways
•    Primary motor cortex
•    Neural coding and brain machine interfaces
•    Superior colliculus
•    Vestibular and oculomotor systems
•    Cerebellum and diseases
•    Basal ganglia and diseases
•    Rehabilitation after motor dysfunction
 

MCQ / fill in the blanks in-course exam (in PC cluster) – 30%
1.5 hour written essay exam – 70%

•    We will run an essay writing tutorial at the end of the course and provide an opportunity to discuss any student-raised concerns and/or past examination questions.

•    A formal feedback session will be held in the subsequent semester in which students will have access to their marked examination scrips and to generic comments from the markers.
 

Kandel ER, Schwartz JH, Jessell TM, Siegelbaum SA, Hudspeth AJ (2012) Principles of Neural Science (5th edition).  McGraw-Hill 

Tuition fees for home students commencing their studies in September 2027 will be £10,050 per annum. Tuition fees for international students will be £38,000 per annum.

For general information please see the undergraduate finance pages.

Tuition fees are considerably lower for your placement year. Please see the fees page for full details.

Additional expenses could include UK or foreign field trips. These are subsidised by the University but you still need to contribute to the cost of the field course if you choose to go. Costs vary depending on the destination. Free, UK-based field trip options are available. For more information, visit the course unit page.

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

Students participating in placements outside the UK may be able to apply for funding from the UK's Turing scheme depending on eligibility. Priority will be given to students from low income households.