In this study I have outlined the grounds of a new theory, to explain the mind-brain-body triad in health and disease. This is the psychomotor theory. First, I have briefly analyzed the historical development of the relationship between mind and brain, which is being discussed since more than a few thousand years. The tight junctions between psychological and motor systems were subjected to a detailed analysis using examples in health and disease. The feedback circuits between mind, brain, and body were shown to occur within the mind-brain-body triad, in normal states, and psycho-neural diseases. It was stated that psychiatric signs and symptoms are coupled with motor disturbances; neurological diseases are coupled with psychological disturbances; changes in cortical and spinal motor-system activity may influence mind-brain-body triad, and vice versa. Accordingly, a psychomotor theory was created to explain the psychomotor coupling in health and disease, stating that, not the mind-brain duality or unity, but the mind-brain-body triad as a functional unit is essential in health and disease, since mind does not end in the brain, but further controls movements, in a reciprocal manner; mental and motor events share the same neural substrate, cortical and spinal motor neurons; mental events emerging from the motoneuronal system is strongly coupled with the unity of the mind-brain-body triad. So, the psychomotor theory rejects the mind-brain duality, instead, advances the unity of the psychomotor system, which will have important consequences in understanding and improving the human mind, brain, and body in health and disease.

Mind, brain, motor system, psychology, psychiatry, neurology