An upper motor neuron lesion (also known as pyramidal insufficiency) is a lesion of the neural pathway above the anterior horn cell of the spinal cord or motor nuclei of the cranial nerves. This is in contrast to a lower motor neuron lesion, which affects nerve fibers traveling from the anterior horn of the spinal cord to the relevant muscle(s).
Upper motor neuron lesions occur in conditions affecting motor neurons in the brain or spinal cord such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury and cerebral palsy.
Read more about Upper Motor Neuron Lesion: Symptoms, Corticospinal/pyramidal Tract
Famous quotes containing the words upper and/or motor:
“I am not afraid of the priests in the long-run. Scientific method is the white ant which will slowly but surely destroy their fortifications. And the importance of scientific method in modern practical life—always growing and increasing—is the guarantee for the gradual emancipation of the ignorant upper and lower classes, the former of whom especially are the strength of the priests.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“This biplane is the shape of human flight.
Its name might better be First Motor Kite.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)