Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Hierarchy of Motor Control01:18

Hierarchy of Motor Control

The hierarchy of motor control refers to the different levels of organization and processing involved in controlling movement in the body. These levels range from higher cortical areas involved in planning and decision-making to lower spinal cord reflexes that respond automatically to external stimuli.
Direct Motor Pathways01:11

Direct Motor Pathways

The direct motor pathways, also known as the pyramidal tracts, are a group of neural pathways that originate in the brain and descend through the spinal cord. They control the voluntary movement of the body. There are two major direct motor pathways: the corticospinal and the corticobulbar tracts.
The corticospinal tract is responsible for the voluntary movement of the limbs and trunk. It originates in the cerebral cortex of the brain and descends through the cerebrum's internal capsule and the...
Higher Mental Functions of the Brain: Language01:10

Higher Mental Functions of the Brain: Language

Language is a system of communication that allows the expression of thoughts, ideas, and feelings. The brain processes language in both hemispheres.
Language formation and comprehension take place in the dominant hemisphere. The dominant hemisphere is responsible for understanding the meaning of spoken, written, or sign language, as well as the ability to communicate. For most people, the left hemisphere is the dominant one. The right hemisphere, then, gives tone and emotional context to the...
High-Level and Low-Level Awareness01:19

High-Level and Low-Level Awareness

Controlled processes in human consciousness represent high-alert mental states where individuals deliberately focus their attention on achieving specific goals. Controlled processes can be seen in situations like mastering new technology, where a person might become so absorbed that they ignore surrounding distractions. Such processes involve selective attention, requiring one to concentrate on particular elements of experience while disregarding others. These are governed by executive...
Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex01:14

Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex

The cerebral cortex, the brain's outermost layer, is pivotal in processing complex cognitive tasks, emotions, and various sensory inputs and executing voluntary motor activities. This intricate structure is divided into three primary functional areas: the motor areas, sensory areas, and association areas.
Motor Areas
The motor areas located in the frontal lobe are central to controlling voluntary movements. This region is further subdivided into the primary motor cortex and the premotor cortex.
Indirect Motor Pathways01:22

Indirect Motor Pathways

The indirect motor or extrapyramidal pathways originate in the brainstem, the lower portion of the brain that connects it to the spinal cord. They consist of several distinct tracts, each with specialized functions. The four main tracts of the indirect motor pathways are the vestibulospinal tract, the reticulospinal tract, the tectospinal tract, and the rubrospinal tract.
The vestibulospinal tract originates in the vestibular nuclei of the brainstem. The vestibular system detects changes in...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Neural selectivity for social interactions in the infant brain.

iScience·2026
Same author

Encapsulation of the visual perception of social events from semantic priming.

Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance·2026
Same author

Perceptual-cue-based mechanisms for recognizing social agents and their roles in social interactions.

The Behavioral and brain sciences·2026
Same author

Revisiting our primate roots in infants grooming.

Scientific reports·2026
Same author

Impact of Patients, Nurses, and Workload on the Use of a Nurse-Initiated Pain Protocol at Triage in the Emergency Department: A Single-Center Retrospective Observational Study.

Journal of clinical medicine·2026
Same author

Relational properties as a source of variation for object representation in OTC.

Cognitive neuroscience·2025

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 13, 2026

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior
09:49

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior

Published on: April 16, 2014

Higher-level motor processes.

Raffaella Ida Rumiati1, Liuba Papeo, Corrado Corradi-Dell'Acqua

  • 1Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC), University of Trento, Italy. rumiati@sissa.it

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
|April 16, 2010
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

The motor system is now understood to have higher-level cognitive functions beyond movement. New theories integrating strategy and simulation may explain how the brain uses motor representations for diverse tasks like object recognition and language.

More Related Videos

Study Motor Skill Learning by Single-pellet Reaching Tasks in Mice
06:04

Study Motor Skill Learning by Single-pellet Reaching Tasks in Mice

Published on: March 4, 2014

Investigating Motor Skill Learning Processes with a Robotic Manipulandum
07:52

Investigating Motor Skill Learning Processes with a Robotic Manipulandum

Published on: February 12, 2017

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 13, 2026

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior
09:49

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior

Published on: April 16, 2014

Study Motor Skill Learning by Single-pellet Reaching Tasks in Mice
06:04

Study Motor Skill Learning by Single-pellet Reaching Tasks in Mice

Published on: March 4, 2014

Investigating Motor Skill Learning Processes with a Robotic Manipulandum
07:52

Investigating Motor Skill Learning Processes with a Robotic Manipulandum

Published on: February 12, 2017

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Motor System Research

Background:

  • The motor system was traditionally viewed solely as a movement output pathway.
  • Recent decades have revealed higher-level cognitive functions attributed to the motor system, including action/object recognition, imagery, and language processing.
  • This shift is supported by neuropsychological observations and neuroimaging studies.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review the evolving understanding of the motor system's functions.
  • To discuss embodied versus disembodied theories and their supporting evidence.
  • To propose a novel hypothesis space for explaining motor system functions.

Main Methods:

  • Review of neuropsychological observations.
  • Analysis of neuroimaging research findings.
  • Theoretical synthesis of existing data.

Main Results:

  • Neuropsychological data support both association-based (embodied) and dissociation-based (disembodied) models.
  • Neuroimaging reveals overlapping and discrete activation patterns for action-related functions.
  • No single theory currently explains all observed phenomena.

Conclusions:

  • The motor system plays a critical role in functions beyond motor execution.
  • Existing theories (embodied/disembodied) explain parts of the data but not all.
  • Concepts of strategy and simulation offer a promising intermediate hypothesis to explain the cognitive system's use of action-related functions.