Psychomotor means . . ..

of or relating to movement or muscular activity associated with mental

processes (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, fourth edition, 2000).
This article will use Psych formind, and motor for the motoneuronal system in brain and
spinal cord. According to Hebb (1980), broadly speaking, the mind is that which controls
behavior (p. 3). In the present work, the psychomotor system will be shown to be closely
related to the mind/body (or mind/brain) problem, which has a relatively long history.
Themind/body problem is concerned with determining the relationship between body and its
mind. The psychomotor theory is an attempt to explain the possibilities of mind/brain unity
and/or the mind/brain duality in relation to motor system in humans. To understand this theory,
one has to first analyze the historical development of the mind-brain relations, at least briefly.
PSYCHOMOTOR THEORY OF HUMAN MIND
This article has presented some of the basic theories concerning the mind/body or the
mind/brain relations and scientifically established facts about the psychomotor interactions. First
of all, the aforementioned studies indicated that in psychomotor domain, not the mind-brain
duality or unity, but the mind-brain-body triad as a functional unit is essential in health and
disease, because the mental events (mind) do not end in the brain; they further control the
movements (body).
The studies suggest that (i) psychic system is closely coupled with motor system; (ii) mental and
motor events share the same neural substrate, the motoneuronal system; (iii) brain is the liaison
between mind and body. According to the aforementioned results the motor and mental systems
share the same motoneuronal domain within the central nervous system. This is the
psychomotor system, being the quintessence of the psychomotor theory, which argues that the
human mind may be an emergent property of the fluctuating activities within the central motor
nucleus, expressed by human language. The presented scientific literature suggests that the
mental 1138 U . TAN events (mind) are always coupled with cortico-spinal motor system
through the feedback mechanisms between mind and brain. This is, however, not a dualistic
view. It is rather a monistic theory, suggesting that all psychic events may in fact be the
expressions of the fluctuatingmotor activities within the brain. Thus, the psychomotor theory
emphasizes the leading role of the motor system in the emergence of the mental events, which
would not be more than an expression of the motoric using human language. In this context,
Sherrington, despite his dualistic philosophy, accentuated the role of the motor system in
relation to mind, stating that mind is attached to a voluntary motor act performed with skill . . .
mind seems to have arisen in connection with the motor act . . . where motor integration
progressed and where motor behavior progressively evolved, mind progressively evolved.
Consistent with the close coupling between the human mind and the human motor system, the
parallel evolution of the frontal lobe regions and hands in hominids suggests motor activity as
the basis of human intelligence (Seitz, 2000).
According to the psychomotor theory, the human mind may be an emergent property of
themotor system, expressed by human language. As also mentioned earlier, Sir John Eccles, a
contemporary neurophysiologist, a Nobel Prize winner, and a prominent defendant of the
dualistinteractionist theory, could not explain the human mind without considering the left brain,
that is, the liaison brain, which is the dominant hemisphere whit language capacities. As
mentioned earlier, he summarized his views: . . .the self-conscious mind as an independent
entity that actively engages in the reading out from a multitude of active centers in the modules
of the liaison areas of the dominant cerebral hemisphere, which is mainly engaged in language.
Thus, the psychomotor theory emphasizes the prominent role of language in the emergence of
mind. Accordingly, it can be stated that there would be no human mind if there were no human
language. It can also be stated that the human motor system, human language, and human
mind may be co-evolved in the history of human beings.
In brief, the mental events may emerge as an active mind from the central motoneuronal
system, the output of which can induce movements in the body, and the output of the muscular

activity feed-back to the central motoneuronal system, emerging the mind at the same time. The
motor system is the nucleus, which coupled with mind quite tightly, so that any disturbance in
this nucleus reflects as a mental disorder in the previously healthy persons. This article
presented examples about the mind-brain-body relations in health and disease. Because of the
close relation between mental and motor events, the PSYCHOMOTOR THEORY 1139
motoneuronal diseases are usually seen with mental disturbances. According to the new theory
of human mind, the existence of any purely mental disorder is unconceivable because the
mental events emerge only from the motoneuronal system; there is no independent mind.
Therefore, mental disturbances may only originate from motoneuronal disorders; there may be
no psychiatric illness without an accompanying motoneuronal disorder.
The concepts about the neurological and psychiatric diseases are slowly changing. Interestingly
enough, Parkinsons disease, Alzheimers disease, and motor neuron disease all share the
same motoneuronal systems including the socalled global neurons (see Greenfield & Vaux,
2002). Normalizing these global neurons may be enough to treat all the neurological and
psychiatric symptoms of the motor neuron diseases. Accordingly, the psychomotor theory may
open new strategies for the therapy of psychiatric disorders. For instance, it may be quite
possible to treat depression, only increasing the extensor motoneuronal activity, as mentioned
earlier. The motor system may be the key factor in understanding and improving behavior in
health and disease.
The global output of the cortico-spinal motor system may be the key element determining the
psychological well-being. In this context, McNeil et al. (p. 219, 2003) have stated that . . . an
increased rate of neuromotoric deviation is very clearly associated with increased rates of
current mental disorder. With regard to psychomotor coupling, Walker (p. 453, 1994) reported
that The heightened dopamine-receptor activation induces both movement abnormalities and
schizophrenia-spectrum symptoms. These and related findings suggest that the brain regions
that give rise to schizophrenia and spectrum disorders may also play a role in motor regulation
at the same time. Further, because motor dysfunction is known to precede the clinical onset of
schizophrenia by many years (Walker et al., 1994), motor assessments may be promising,
along with other indicators (Neumann and Walker, p. 159, 1996), for identifying individuals at
risk. Sperry (1952) also accentuated the prominent role of the motor system in cognitive
activities, nearly half a century ago: The principal function of the nervous system is the
coordinated innervations of the musculature. Its fundamental anatomical plan and working
principles are understandable only on these terms . . . even the highest human cognitive
activities, even those requiring no motor output, there are inevitably to be found certain critically
essential motoric neural events.(p. 298) 1140 U . TAN
Gold and Stoljar (p. 869, 1999) argued The idea is not of course that neuroscience will explain
everything about the mind; perhaps there are aspects of the mind we will never explain. In
contrast to this statement, the psychomotor theory seems to be of utmost importance for
understanding and improving the human mind in health and disease in the near future.