Tau theory explains how both intrinsically and perceptually guided movements are controlled by the brain. According to general tau theory, voluntary, self-paced human movements are controlled by coupling the tau of the movement (i.e., the rate of closure of the movement gap at its current closure rate) onto an intrinsically generated tau-guide (Lee in Ecol Psychol 10:221–250, 1998). To date there are no studies that have looked at involuntary movements, which are directly guided by innate patterns of neural energy generated at the level of the spinal cord or brain, and that can be explained by general tau theory. This study examines the guidance of an involuntary movement generated by the Patellar reflex in presence of a minimized gravitational field. The results showed that the Patellar reflexive movement is strongly coupled to an intrinsic tau-guide particularly when the limb is not moving in the direction of gravity. These results suggest that the same principles of control underpin both voluntary and involuntary movements irrespective of whether they are generated in the brain or the spinal cord. Secondly, given that movements like the patellar reflex are visible from infancy, one might conclude that tau-guidance is an innate form of motor control, or neural blueprint, that has evolved over time.

中文翻译：

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脊髓反射运动遵循一般 tau 理论

Tau 理论解释了大脑如何控制内在和感知引导的运动。根据一般 tau 理论，通过将运动的 tau（即，运动间隙以其当前闭合速率的闭合速率）耦合到内在生成的 tau 引导（Lee in Ecol心理学 10:221–250, 1998)。迄今为止，还没有研究关注不自主运动，这些运动由脊髓或大脑水平产生的先天神经能量模式直接引导，并且可以通过一般 tau 理论来解释。这项研究检查了在最小重力场的情况下由髌骨反射产生的不自主运动的指导。结果表明，髌骨反射运动与内在 tau 引导强烈耦合，特别是当肢体不沿重力方向移动时。这些结果表明，无论是在大脑还是脊髓中产生的，自主运动和非自主运动都是相同的控制原则。其次，考虑到像髌骨反射这样的运动从婴儿期就可以看到，人们可能会得出结论，tau 引导是一种与生俱来的运动控制形式或神经蓝图，它随着时间的推移而进化。