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The paper
I.S. Glover, S.N. Baker, “Cortical, corticospinal, and reticulospinal contributions to strength training,” J Neurosci, 40:5820–32, 2020.
Of the two major neural highways that carry messages about movement down the spinal cord, one—the reticulospinal tract—is decidedly less fashionable, according to neuroscientist Stuart Baker of Newcastle University in the UK. In contrast to the corticospinal tract (CST), which evolved more recently and helps control complex, uniquely human movements such as playing the piano, the reticulospinal tract (RST) is associated with “boring” functions such as posture and walking, Baker says. But he suspects that the RST plays a bigger role in our movements than researchers currently appreciate.
To test for the RST’s possible contribution to strength training, Baker’s PhD student Isabel Glover, now a postdoc at University College London, taught two macaque monkeys to grasp and pull a handle attached to a pulley with their right paws. Feeding ...
