[Contribution of JM Charcot to the study of motor localizations in man]

The notion of a motor cortical area was introduced in neurology by the clinical work of H. Jackson and by the animal experiments of E. Hitzig and D. Ferrier between 1870 and 1874. As early as 1875, J.M. Charcot undertook a broad anatomoclinical study of about 200 cases selected on the basis of localization of lesions and motor symptomatology. Charcot and Pitres' publications on this subject were analyzed and their arguments for including the postcentral gyrus in motor areas were discussed.