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Movement and daily function

Lower motor neuron

The nerve cells running from the spinal cord out to the muscles, whose loss causes weakness, wasting and twitching.

What it means

The second relay: it carries the instruction from the spinal cord to the muscle itself. When it is affected the muscle loses bulk, becomes weak and floppy rather than stiff, and often twitches.

Why you might hear it

  • It appears in examination notes and diagnostic reports.
  • An EMG is largely a way of looking for changes of this kind.

People who may help

Where Compass goes into this

About this explanation

These are plain explanations of words you may come across, not advice about your own situation. Where a word matters to a decision, the question pages go into it properly, and your own team is the place to take it.