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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.

Vision

Vision

Vision is the result of light being detected and transduced into neural signals by the retina of the eye. This information is then further analyzed and interpreted by the brain. First, light enters the front of the eye and is focused by the cornea and lens onto the retina—a thin sheet of neural tissue lining the back of the eye. Because of refraction through the convex lens of the eye, images are projected onto the retina upside-down and reversed.

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,...

Visual System

Visual System

Light enters the eye through the cornea, a transparent, dome-shaped surface covering the surface of the eyeball that helps to direct and focus incoming light. This light is then channeled toward the pupil, an adjustable opening whose size is controlled by the iris. The iris, a pigmented muscle, regulates the amount of light entering the eye by contracting or dilating the pupil, thereby ensuring optimal light levels for clear vision.
Once through the pupil, the light passes through the lens, a...

Anatomy of the Eyeball

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The eye is a spherical, hollow structure composed of three tissue layers. The outer layer — the fibrous tunic, comprises the sclera — a white structure — and the cornea, which is transparent. The sclera encompasses some of the ocular surface, most of which is not visible. However, the 'white of the eye' is distinctively visible in humans compared to other species. The cornea, a clear covering at the front of the eye, enables light penetration. The eye's middle layer, the vascular tunic,...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 5, 2026

Functional Imaging of Auditory Cortex in Adult Cats using High-field fMRI

Functional Imaging of Auditory Cortex in Adult Cats using High-field fMRI

Published on: February 19, 2014

Surround suppression by high spatial frequency stimuli in the cat primary visual cortex.

Hironobu Osaki¹, Tomoyuki Naito, Osamu Sadakane

¹Laboratory of Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, Graduate School of Medicine Osaka University, Health and Sport Science Building, Machikaneyama 1-17, Toyonaka, Osaka, 560-0043, Japan.

The European Journal of Neuroscience

|January 25, 2011

Summary

Visual cortex neurons exhibit surround suppression tuned to high spatial frequencies (SFs). This mechanism shifts SF tuning for larger stimuli, aiding scale-invariant visual processing in cats.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Visual Processing
Computational Neuroscience

Background:

Surround suppression modulates neural responses in the primary visual cortex (V1).
Traditionally, surround suppression is known to tune to lower spatial frequencies (SFs) than the classical receptive field.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the effect of varying spatial frequencies (SFs) on surround suppression in cat V1.
To determine if surround suppression is tuned to high SFs and its impact on SF tuning.

Main Methods:

Utilized circular sinusoidal grating patches to stimulate both classical and extraclassical receptive fields.
Employed area-summation tuning curves to analyze neural responses.
Simulated a model neuron lacking surround suppression for comparison.

Main Results:

Demonstrated high-SF-tuned surround suppression in cat V1.
Observed a shift in SF tuning towards lower SFs for larger stimulus sizes due to this suppression.
Confirmed that preferred SF shifts are absent in models without surround suppression.

Conclusions:

High-SF-tuned surround suppression influences SF tuning based on stimulus size in V1.
This mechanism is crucial for achieving scale-invariant visual processing.
Findings challenge previous notions about the SF tuning characteristics of surround suppression.