MOVEMENT

Understanding movement (motor cortex, cognition):

1. The primary motor cortex, or M1, is one of the principal brain
areas involved in motor function. M1 is located in the frontal lobe
of the brain, along a bump called the precentral gyrus. The role
of the primary motor cortex is to generate neural impulses that
control the execution of movement.
2. Signals from M1 cross the body’s midline to activate skeletal
muscles on the opposite side of the body, meaning that the left
hemisphere of the brain controls the right side of the body, and the
right hemisphere controls the left side of the body, through the
corticospinal tract.
3. Every part of the body is represented in the primary motor cortex,
and these representations are arranged in a somatotopic
manner — the foot is next to the leg which is next to the trunk
which is next to the arm and the hand. The amount of brain matter
devoted to any particular body part represents the amount of
control that the primary motor cortex has over that body part. For
example, a lot of cortical space is required to control the complex
movements of the hand and fingers, and these body parts have
larger representations in M1 than the trunk or legs, whose muscle
patterns are relatively simple. This disproportionate map of the
body in the motor cortex is called the motor homunculus.
4. Other regions of the cortex involved in motor function are called
the secondary motor cortices. These regions include
a. the posterior parietal cortex,
b. the premotor cortex
c. the supplementary motor area (SMA).
 5. The posterior parietal cortex is involved in transforming visual
information into motor commands. For example, the posterior
parietal cortex would be involved in determining how to steer the
arm to a glass of water based on where the glass is located in
space.
6. The posterior parietal areas send this information on to the
premotor cortex and the supplementary motor area. The premotor
cortex lies just in front of (anterior to) the primary motor cortex.
7. Premotor cortex is involved in the sensory guidance of
movement, and it controls the more proximal muscles and trunk
muscles of the body. In our example, the premotor cortex would
help to orient the body before reaching for the glass of water.
8. The supplementary motor area lies above, or medial to, the
premotor area, also in front of the primary motor cortex. It is
involved in the planning of complex movements and in
coordinating two-handed movements.
9. The supplementary motor area and the premotor regions both
send information to the primary motor cortex as well as to
brainstem motor regions.
10. Thus, posterior parietal area  premotor cortex and
supplementary motor area  primary motor cortex  corticospinal
tract  skeletal muscles.

What are the Hemispheric differences of the brain?

Functional asymmetries of the brain:
The lateralization of brain function is the tendency for some neural
functions or cognitive processes to be specialized to one side of the
brain or the other.
Superiority of the left hemisphere in controlling ipsilateral
movement:
 One unexpected left-hemisphere specialization was revealed by
functional brain-imaging studies. When complex, cognitively driven
movements are made by one hand, most of the activation is
observed in the contralateral hemisphere, as expected.
 However, some activation is also observed in the ipsilateral
hemisphere, and these ipsilateral effects are substantially greater
in the left hemi- sphere than in the right.
 Consistent with this observation is the finding that left-hemisphere
lesions are more likely than right-hemisphere lesions to produce
ipsilateral motor problems
 For example, left- hemisphere lesions are more likely to reduce the
accuracy of left-hand movements than right-hemisphere lesions
are to reduce the accuracy of right-hand movements.
Superiority of the right hemisphere in spatial ability:
 In a classic early study, Levy (1969) placed a 3D block of a
particular shape in either the right hand or the left hand of split-
brain patients. Then, she asked them to point to the 2D image that
best represented what the 3D block would look like if it were made
of cardboard and unfolded.
 She found a right-hemisphere superiority on this task, and she
found that the two hemispheres seemed to go about the task in
different ways.
 The performance of the left hand and right hemisphere was
rapid and silent, whereas the performance of the right hand and
left hemisphere was hesitant and often accompanied by a
 running verbal commentary that was difficult for the patients to
inhibit.
 Levy concluded that the right hemisphere is superior to the left at
spatial tasks. This conclusion has been frequently confirmed and it
is consistent with the finding that disorders of spatial perception
tend to be associated with right-hemisphere damage.
Specialization of the right hemisphere for emotion:
 Analysis of the effects of unilateral brain lesions indicates that the
right hemisphere may be superior to the left at performing
some tests of emotion: for example, in accurately identifying
facial expressions of emotion.
 Although the study of unilateral brain lesions suggests a general
right-hemisphere dominance for some aspects of emotional
processing, functional brain imaging studies have not provided
unambiguous support for this view.
Superior musical ability of the right hemisphere:
 Kimura (1964) compared the performance of 20 right-handers on
the standard digit version of the dichotic listening test with their
performance on a version of the test involving the dichotic
presentation of melodies. In the melody version of the test, Kimura
simultaneously played two different melodies—one to each ear—
and then asked the participants to identify the two they had just
heard from four that were subsequently played to them through
both ears.
 The right ear (i.e., the left hemisphere) was superior in the
perception of digits, whereas the left ear (i.e., the right
hemisphere) was superior in the perception of melodies. This
is consistent with the observation that right temporal lobe lesions
 are more likely to disrupt music discriminations than are left
temporal lobe lesions.
Hemispheric differences in memory:
 The study of the lateralization of memory was one of the first areas
of research on cerebral lateralization to lead to this modification in
thinking.
 Both the left and right hemispheres have the ability to perform on
tests of memory, but the left hemisphere is better on some
tests, whereas the right hemisphere is better on others.
 There are two approaches to studying the cerebral lateralization of
memory. One approach is to try to link particular memory
processes with particular hemispheres—for example, it has been
argued that the left hemisphere is specialized for encoding
episodic memory.
 The other approach is to link the memory processes of each
hemisphere to specific materials rather than to specific processes.
 In general, the left hemisphere has been found to play the
greater role in memory for verbal material, whereas the right
hemisphere has been found to play the greater role in
memory for nonverbal.
The left-hemisphere interpreter:
 Several lines of evidence suggest that the left and right
hemispheres approach cognitive tasks in different ways. The
cognitive approach that is typical of the left hemisphere is
attributed to a mechanism that is metaphorically referred to as the
interpreter—a hypothetical neuronal mechanism that continuously
assesses patterns of events and tries to make sense of them.
  The following experiment illustrates the kind of evidence that
supports the existence of a left-hemisphere interpreter. The left
and right hemispheres of split-brain patients were tested
separately. The task was to guess which of two lights—top or
bottom—would come on next. The top light came on 80 percent of
the time in a random sequence, but the subjects were not given
this information.
 Intact control participants quickly discovered that the top light
came on more often than the bottom one; however, because they
tried to figure out the non-existent rule that predicted the exact
sequence, they were correct only 68 percent of the time—even
though they could have scored 80 percent if they always selected
the top light.
 The left hemispheres of the split-brain patients performed on
this test like intact controls: They attempted to find deeper
meaning and as a result performed poorly. In contrast, the right
hemispheres, did not try to interpret the events and readily
learned to maximize their correct responses by always
selecting the top light.
Anatomical asymmetries of the brain:

 The frontal operculum: It is the area of frontal lobe cortex that

lies just in front of the face area of the primary motor cortex; in the
left hemisphere, it is the location of Broca’s area.

 The planum temporale: it lies in the posterior region of the lateral

fissure; it is thought to play a role in the comprehension of
language and is often referred to as Wernicke’s area.
 Heschl’s gyrus: It is located in the lateral fissure just anterior to
the planum temporale in the temporal lobe; it is the location of
primary auditory cortex.

Although the area of these locations are irregular in the population

(thereby creating an anatomical asymmetry), but this anomaly did not
contribute to functional differences. However, one study did notice
that musicians who were able to identify perfect pitch had larger
Heschl’s gyrus.