Sensory motor amnesia
Encyclopedia
Sensory-Motor Amnesia ("SMA") is a phenomenon of the central nervous system
in which the portions of the nervous system
responsible for involuntary or automatic movement, such as the spinal cord
take indefinite persistent control of movements that should frequently under the person's voluntary, conscious control. Sensory-Motor Amnesia was discovered by Thomas Hanna, Ph.D. during his development of Clinical Somatics and described in his book Somatics: Reawakening the Mind's Control of Movement, Flexibility, and Health.
The process of developing SMA is the same process of learning any skill, or "habituation": Rehearsal, or repeated execution of the movement pattern, gradually makes that slow deliberate movement easy to do without conscious thought. Hanna described the condition of SMA as one where the movement pattern had become so automatic, the voluntary part of the brain (primarily, portions of the brain's cerebral cortex) has effectively "forgotten" to turn the movement pattern off, and so it would persist indefinitely. Whilst it is normal to create habitual patterns in order to go through everyday life, it a habituated persistent movement pattern can become problematic if it is inflexible or is in itself stressful, for example, if it causes muscular spasm. In turn, Hanna argued that is was these patterns of neuromuscular tension that causes many musculoskeletal problems otherwise blamed on weakness, aging, or joint and tissue damage.
Central nervous system
The central nervous system is the part of the nervous system that integrates the information that it receives from, and coordinates the activity of, all parts of the bodies of bilaterian animals—that is, all multicellular animals except sponges and radially symmetric animals such as jellyfish...
in which the portions of the nervous system
Nervous system
The nervous system is an organ system containing a network of specialized cells called neurons that coordinate the actions of an animal and transmit signals between different parts of its body. In most animals the nervous system consists of two parts, central and peripheral. The central nervous...
responsible for involuntary or automatic movement, such as the spinal cord
Spinal cord
The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular bundle of nervous tissue and support cells that extends from the brain . The brain and spinal cord together make up the central nervous system...
take indefinite persistent control of movements that should frequently under the person's voluntary, conscious control. Sensory-Motor Amnesia was discovered by Thomas Hanna, Ph.D. during his development of Clinical Somatics and described in his book Somatics: Reawakening the Mind's Control of Movement, Flexibility, and Health.
The process of developing SMA is the same process of learning any skill, or "habituation": Rehearsal, or repeated execution of the movement pattern, gradually makes that slow deliberate movement easy to do without conscious thought. Hanna described the condition of SMA as one where the movement pattern had become so automatic, the voluntary part of the brain (primarily, portions of the brain's cerebral cortex) has effectively "forgotten" to turn the movement pattern off, and so it would persist indefinitely. Whilst it is normal to create habitual patterns in order to go through everyday life, it a habituated persistent movement pattern can become problematic if it is inflexible or is in itself stressful, for example, if it causes muscular spasm. In turn, Hanna argued that is was these patterns of neuromuscular tension that causes many musculoskeletal problems otherwise blamed on weakness, aging, or joint and tissue damage.