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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....

Hierarchy of Motor Control

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.

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.

Direct Motor Pathways

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...

Major Somatic Sensory Pathways

Major Somatic Sensory Pathways

Sensory impulses related to touch, pressure, vibration, and proprioception from various body parts, such as the limbs, trunk, neck, and posterior head, travel to the cerebral cortex through the posterior column-medial lemniscus pathway. The pathway’s name derives from the two white-matter tracts that convey the impulses: the spinal cord's posterior column and the brainstem's medial lemniscus. First-order sensory neurons extend their axons into the spinal cord, forming the...

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...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 19, 2025

In Vivo Wireless Optogenetic Control of Skilled Motor Behavior

In Vivo Wireless Optogenetic Control of Skilled Motor Behavior

Published on: November 22, 2021

Parietal control of hand movement.

Elisabeth Rounis¹, Giovanni Buccino², Ferdinand Binkofski³

¹Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust, West Middlesex University Hospital, Isleworth, United Kingdom; Department of Brain Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom.

Handbook of Clinical Neurology

|August 10, 2023

Summary

The parietal lobe

Keywords:

Cortex Dorso-dorsal stream Grasp Hand control Movement Neurons Parietal lobe Stable affordances Variable affordances Ventro-dorsal stream

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Science
Motor Control

Background:

The parietal lobe is crucial for sensorimotor control, enabling hand use for object interaction.
The dorsal stream, recently divided into dorso-dorsal and ventro-dorsal pathways, is key to processing action possibilities (affordances).

Approach:

This research reviews the functional roles of dorsal stream subdivisions in processing stable and variable affordances.
It examines how these pathways interact with ventral stream representations for hand movement control.

Key Points:

The ventro-dorsal stream links to object manipulation, while the dorso-dorsal stream supports reaching and online action control.
Stable affordances rely on prior knowledge, processed slowly, while variable affordances use fast, online visual processing.
The dorso-dorsal stream codes variable affordances, and the ventro-dorsal stream codes stable affordances.

Conclusions:

Understanding these dorsal stream subdivisions and their interaction with the ventral stream is vital for parietal control of hand movements.
This knowledge may illuminate recovery mechanisms for complex motor deficits like limb apraxias.