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Related Concept Videos

Association Areas of the Cortex

Association Areas of the Cortex

Association areas are regions of the cerebral cortex that do not have a specific sensory or motor function. Instead, they integrate and interpret information from various sources to enable higher cognitive processes such as memory, learning, and decision-making. Some key association areas include the following:
Prefrontal Association Area: This area is located in the frontal lobe and is involved in planning, decision-making, and moderating social behavior. It connects with primary motor areas,...

Somatosensory, Motor, and Association Cortex

Somatosensory, Motor, and Association Cortex

The somatosensory cortex in the parietal lobes is crucial for interpreting sensory data such as touch, temperature, and proprioception. The somatosensory cortex, situated in the parietal lobes, plays a vital role in interpreting sensory information like touch, temperature, and proprioception—awareness of body position. This specialized brain region features an organized structure wherein neurons at the top primarily process sensations originating from the lower body. In contrast, those at the...

Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex

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.

Somatosensation

Somatosensation

The somatosensory system relays sensory information from the skin, mucous membranes, limbs, and joints. Somatosensation is more familiarly known as the sense of touch. A typical somatosensory pathway includes three types of long neurons: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary neurons have cell bodies located near the spinal cord in groups of neurons called dorsal root ganglia. The sensory neurons of ganglia innervate designated areas of skin called dermatomes.

Lobes of the Cerebrum

Lobes of the Cerebrum

The cerebral cortex, a critical structure of the brain, is intricately divided into two hemispheres, each consisting of four distinct lobes: occipital, temporal, frontal, and parietal. These lobes function cooperatively to regulate various cognitive and sensory functions, forming the basis of our complex neural capabilities.
Frontal lobe
The frontal lobes, located behind the forehead, are the command center of our brain, controlling personality, intelligence, and voluntary muscle movements.

Propagation of Action Potentials

Propagation of Action Potentials

The propagation of an action potential refers to the process by which a nerve impulse, or "action potential," travels along a neuron.
Neurons (nerve cells) have a resting membrane potential, with a slightly negative charge inside compared to outside. This is maintained by ion channels, such as sodium (Na+) and potassium (K+) channels, which control the flow of ions. When a stimulus, like a touch or a signal from another neuron, triggers the neuron, sodium channels open, allowing sodium ions to...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 9, 2026

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings

Published on: August 1, 2018

Representation of action in occipito-temporal cortex.

Alison J Wiggett¹, Paul E Downing

¹Wales Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Bangor University, Bangor, UK. a.wiggett@bangor.ac.uk

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

|September 3, 2010

Summary

Brain imaging reveals that while the brain adapts to familiar actions, it does not show specific adaptation for unfamiliar identities. This suggests widespread neural networks for action representation across the occipito-temporal cortex.

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Corticospinal Excitability Modulation During Action Observation

Corticospinal Excitability Modulation During Action Observation

Published on: December 31, 2013

Area of Science:

Social cognitive neuroscience
Neuroimaging
Human brain mapping

Background:

Understanding how the brain represents others' identities and actions is a key question in social cognitive neuroscience.
Previous research has implicated the occipito-temporal cortex in these processes.

Purpose of the Study:

To replicate and extend previous findings on action and identity representations in the lateral occipito-temporal cortex.
To investigate action- and identity-specific adaptation effects using fMRI.

Main Methods:

Presented participants with full-cue movies of actors performing whole-body actions.
Utilized fMRI to analyze adaptation effects in functionally defined brain regions (e.g., FFA, EBA, LOC, pSTS, hMT+).
Employed both univariate and multivoxel pattern analyses, alongside whole-brain tests.

Main Results:

Significant action-specific adaptation was observed in multiple brain areas.
No evidence for identity-specific adaptation was found.
Action adaptation effects were widespread across the lateral and ventral occipito-temporal cortex, not confined to specific regions.

Conclusions:

The lack of identity-specific adaptation may be due to the use of unfamiliar actors.
Action adaptation appears to be a distributed neural process, not localized to a single brain region.
Findings suggest that the brain broadly processes familiar actions irrespective of the actor's identity.