Roselyne CHAUVIN

Discovering the tale

Mimi and the voluntary movement

 

 

Mimi explore the brain in a new adventure about the movement and its execution.

 

 

 

The team of CogniJunior

/ CogniJunior

This story was written in the light of the interaction with Jennifer C. holding a disease called “cerebral motor infirmity” and wanting popularize her disease. We decided to give a full explanation of the motor system in a tale and to popularize about the disease on another support.

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Télécharger le conte / Licence Creative Commons Attribution

Adventures of Mimi :

Fronti, a neuron of the frontal cortex, is surprised that the order of movement that him and his colleagues sent to other neurons isn’t follow by confirmation of execution. He is a bit concerned. In the neighborhood, our friend Mimi the microglia decide to help to find where the movement order is blocked: she is going to follow the message to understand where the problem come from. She bring along with her in the journey another microglia, Boulie, pretty proud to “fear nothing”, but the journey will give hard time to this conception of herself.
 
From neurons who decide of movement in the brain to moto-neurons who manage the muscle directly, passing by all neurons that play a role in the creation of the action, Mimi is doing a exceptional trip fro mthe brain to the spinal cord. Along the adventure, she understand the importance of confirming order that are executed or not (via what we call “retro action loop” or feedback), and will discover the possibility of bypass in the brain, when a reflex happens.

Scientific knowledge :

 This story needs to be considered at a follow up of the first tale the adventures of Mimi (which present the basis to understand the functioning of the brain) aims to illustrate global notions of anatomis and physiologie o the nervous system related to movement, and to talk about pathology of movement. These pathology tend to induice misunderstanding and prejudices about disable people. We can sometimes think that they are cognitively disable but it’s not obligatory the case. Ths story is born after the proposition of Jennifer, that have cerebral motor infirmity, she contacted us because she wanted to popularize her disease.

For this aim, we present:

• the different cerebral areas, neurons involved when we decide to do a movement and they different role
• the moment when they are involved in the chain of action
• the place where they are in the body (in the brain but also in the spinal cord for other).
• the diference between involuntary movement, dignified in the brain and sent to concerned muscle, and a movement reflex.
• the retro action loop and the importance of verifying constantly the nervous message send from top to bottom.
• Different pathology of movement (for example the erebro motor infirmity), cause and consequences.

Références scientifiques :

• le cerveau à tous les nveaux specifically about movement, but the website have to be explored !
• a lecture about basal ganglia, another about voluntary movement, another about motor pathway (in case you still have doubt about something)
• advanced reading : a scientific article about glial cells and their disfunction in sclerosis and another about protection mechanism in spinal cord injury
• a very nice abstract
• if you want more information about Parkinson disease (take also a look at our comics)

Discovering the tale

Mimi in the land of place cells

 

 

Mimi explore the function of spatial localisation by visiting neurons that have a very specific work: in the brain, every one have his specialty.

 

 

The team of CogniJunior

/ CogniJunior

Our next tale is under construction and will be called Mimi in the land of place cells.

Mimi, out little microglia, immune cell of the brain, will have new adventures. She is surprised that detailed information come from neurons of a brain region, the hippocampus, when we are searching for something. Neurons are always happy to call them for help, they never failed when it’s about situating thing in the environment. Mimi is really curious to know how they are organized to work so efficiently. In comparison, where Mimi is working at the moment, the parietal cortex, where we manage attention to a direction or another, neurons receive information from everywhere and are obliged to eliminate some of them, choosing most important ones but sometime not choosing very wisely.

It’s time to take some holidays and Mimi know exactly where to go: the hippocampus and theses special cells that are called place cells. It’s them that enable us to oriented in space. Mimi arrived at the moment of a “research time”: apparently, we lose something and we have to find it back. The idea is to look everywhere, where we come from. Mimi helps the microglia there in the mean time discovering the functioning very specific and hierarchic of theses neurons : place cells.

There, she met a neuron that don’t see himself as very useful next to his colleagues, but is he right ? As for mimi, she is going to review her knowledge about the brain, did the brain do mistake everywhere sometimes?

Scientific knowledge:

• inattentional blindness, when we don’t see something because we are not focusing on it
• the functioning of spatial localisation and cell population involved and well known: place cells and grid cells
• the hippocampus
• the discovery of another reality of the brain: do mistakes are necessary?
• nocturnes activity evocation