Dr David McGrath

Dr David McGrath

Dr David McGrath

Spine Physician

MB BS (Hons) FAFOM, RACP, FAFMM
Master of Pain Medicine


Movement Skills


Movement skills, have two aspects
1.The Quantity or variety of available movements. (movement vocabularly)
2.The Quality of movement pathways. (stress to involved components)

Let's consider a simple system, possessing five independant movements. The movements can be coupled in any combination. We will ignore movement order in this analysis. ie (12)=(21)
These are the possibilities.
1,2,3,4,5
(12),(13),(14),(15),(23),(24),(25),(34),(35),(45)
(123),(124),(125),(234),(235),(345)
(1234),(1235),(1245),(1345),(2345)
(12345)
These add up to 27 combinations. Let's damage the system. Suppose movement 3 is not available because
1.An esential component in the pathway is damaged
2.The pathway has been neglected and is now in disuse (non-use)

These are the reduced set of possibilities.
1,2,4,5
(12),(14),(15),(24),(25),(45)
(124),(125)
(1245)
We are now down to 13 combinations,less than half.

But, there are other ways the system can be damaged. What if pathway 3 is coupled to pathway 5 because
1.Damaged components in both pathway 3 and 5 can be mutually assisted
2.A habit has developed,leading to their consitant coupling

These are the reduced set of possibilities.
1,2,4
(12),(14),(24),(35)
(124),(235),(345)
(1235),(1345),(2345)
(12345)
Under these circumstances, we have 14 allowable combinations.

In both situations we have lost considerable movement variety. But does that matter? This question brings us back to the environment and the concept of a niche.
Can we get by with the 13 or 14 movement possibilities even though our endowment was 27?
And does the allowable set match the lifestyle which is being attempted?

It should be noted that the available 13 or 14 combinations are NOT the same set,implying there exists a different niche, for both situations,which are a sub-niche of the original niche,where 27 movements were available.
There are other deductions as well. In the 13 niche situation, if (35) was required,but is clearly not available, a substitute solution might be (25) or (45). As these movements are not (35) we could surmise that components along pathway 2,4or 5 may be vulnerable to damage. In other words, the quality of movements (25) or (45) is by reasoning, reduced, as (35) was the optimal choice.
This would be the consequence of living beyond the available niche. Loss of movement variety,therefore leads to the prospect of further loss, as the available niche has reduced.
Movement Quality and Movement Variety are somewhat tied at the hip.

What to do?
The niche is reduced by four situations (that I can think of) as above.
1.Excluded Pathways (due to damaged component along pathway)
2.Neglected Pathways (due to non use)
3.Supportive Coupling of Pathways (adaptive response)
4.Habitual Coupling of Pathways (unusual environment)

We need to sort out these possibilities. In particular 2 and 4 need to be distinguished from 1 and 3.
We can expand our niche by opening up 2 and 4 while not messing with with 1 and 3.
This is the purpose of Recursive Neuromodulation

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