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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....

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...

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.

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,...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 2, 2025

Intracortical Inhibition Within the Primary Motor Cortex Can Be Modulated by Changing the Focus of Attention

Intracortical Inhibition Within the Primary Motor Cortex Can Be Modulated by Changing the Focus of Attention

Published on: September 11, 2017

Motor cortex gates distractor stimulus encoding in sensory cortex.

Zhaoran Zhang¹, Edward Zagha^2,3

¹Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA.

Nature Communications

|April 13, 2023

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

The motor cortex actively suppresses distracting sensory information, preventing interference with goal-directed tasks. This brain region gates sensory processing to enhance focus on relevant stimuli.

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Last Updated: Aug 2, 2025

Intracortical Inhibition Within the Primary Motor Cortex Can Be Modulated by Changing the Focus of Attention

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Published on: September 11, 2017

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Stimulating the Lip Motor Cortex with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

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Published on: June 14, 2014

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Neuroscience
Sensory Processing

Background:

Distractor suppression is crucial for goal-directed behavior.
Neuronal mechanisms of distractor suppression, particularly attenuation, remain unclear.
Understanding sensory selection is key to cognitive function.

Purpose of the Study:

Investigate the role of the whisker motor cortex (wMC) in suppressing distractor stimuli.
Elucidate the neuronal mechanisms by which the wMC influences sensory processing.
Determine how motor cortex contributes to selective attention.

Main Methods:

Trained mice to discriminate target and distractor stimuli in different whisker fields.
Utilized optogenetics to inhibit whisker motor cortex activity during task performance.
Performed single-unit recordings in primary somatosensory cortex (S1) to analyze neuronal encoding.

Main Results:

Inhibiting wMC increased responses to distractors and enhanced distractor propagation in S1.
wMC activity decorrelates target and distractor encoding in S1 neurons.
Proactive top-down modulation from wMC to S1 was observed before stimulus onset.

Conclusions:

The motor cortex plays a significant role in sensory selection and distractor suppression.
wMC gates distractor stimulus propagation within sensory cortex, improving target detection.
Motor cortex contributes to cognitive control by modulating sensory processing.