The subconscious messages are sent to an area of the brain called the cerebellum. Here, the information is integrated with messages sent in from other joints in the body. This allows the brain to coordinate body movements through the muscles.
Besides hearing, our ears are part of the body's balance mechanism. Messages sent from the ears also go to the cerebellum.
When working properly, this whole system allows our muscles to keep us standing up straight and moving around with efficiency.
Two other areas which subconsciously control muscle function are the hearing part of the ear, and the eyes. If someone walks up beside you, for example, and speaks, you will turn (muscle action) and look (eyes) toward them. It is the ability of these systems to work together which allows the muscles to make proper motions.
The conscious messages from the joints are sent to an area of the brain called the thalamus. This is a "switchboard" which integrates the conscious messages with those subconscious ones from the cerebellum. The thalamus takes this information and sends it to another part of the brain called the cortex, which then, based on all this information, tells our muscles specifically what to do.
Looking at this whole mechanism we can see that the joints are very dependent upon the muscles. Actually, the whole mechanism must be balanced. If, for example, even one muscle is not balanced, the joint may send improper subconscious signals to the cerebellum, and the information sent to the thalamus will be flawed. This, in turn, may distort the information the cortex receives, causing the wrong messages to be sent to the muscles. The result is poor body function, whether it be posture, movement, coordination, etc. This may become a vicious cycle where now an imbalanced body sends confused messages, conscious and subconscious, to the brain with potential whole body dysfunction.
How can we break this vicious cycle of imbalance (stress)? The applied kinesiologist can correct, or balance, the muscle problem through a number of therapies which may include acupressure, manipulation or reflex stimulation. Even dietary and/or nutritional recommendations, and exercise, may be required. Correcting the muscle imbalance restores normal function of the communication mechanisms. This, in a sense, gives the brain back effective control over the whole body.
