The role of neuron and dopamine loss in Parkinson's Disease (PD) has long been recognized by neuroscientists. However, how dopaminergic modulation affects brain regions involved in the control of ...

The motor cortex is a part of the mammalian brain and is known to support the planning and control of voluntary body movements. Some past neuroscience studies, however, found that the motor cortex may ...

David A. Leopold is in the Section on Cognitive Neurophysiology and Imaging, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethseda, Maryland 20814, USA. In the 1930s, the neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield ...

In a recent study published in the Nature Journal, researchers performed precision functional mapping (PFM) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to map the functional organization of the ...

Neurons in the brain's motor cortex previously thought of as active mainly during hand and arm movements also light up during speech in a way that is similar to patterns of brain activity linked to ...

Researchers have discovered that the dorsal premotor cortex serves a 'meta-learning' function, overseeing and regulating physical movements. Once believed to be limited to movement planning, this ...

Optogenetics is a recently developed technique that can control cellular functions by illuminating lights to the cells in which light-sensitive proteins are expressed by gene transfer. Optogenetics ...

The classical view of how the human brain controls voluntary movement might not tell the whole story. That map of the primary motor cortex — the motor homunculus — shows how this brain region is ...

Scientists found evidence of two interleaved systems, which may help explain the connection between what's going on in our bodies and what's going on in brain areas involved in thoughts and emotions.

Scientists have discovered that signals in the motor cortex act like a series of clutches when it comes to moving, and that these signals can be disrupted to slow the brain's initiation of movement.