Intro | Primary Auditory Cortex | Central Fissure | Frontal Lobe | Lateral Fissure | Primary Motor Cortex | Occipital Lobe | Parietal Lobe | Primary Somatosensory Cortex | Temporal Lobe | Primary Visual Cortex
Part 1: Image-Mapped Tutorial
Part 2: Matching Self-Test
Part 3: Multiple-Choice Self-Test
Primary Motor Cortex is located in the frontal lobe along the central fissure. Primary motor cortex contains neurons that control the contraction of muscles throughout the body. Similar to primary somatosensory cortex, this motor cortex is highly organized with specific regions representing each part of the body. Electrical stimulation of any of these specific regions results in the contraction of muscles in the represented body part. In addition, parts of the body that are capable of finer, more diverse movements such as the hand and mouth have a larger area of representation within primary motor cortex than parts of the body that are capable of only gross movements such as the back or feet.
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Primary motor cortex is also known as the precentral gyrus (meaning the hump located in front of the central fissure). This motor region is specialized to control both fine (hand and facial) and gross (whole body) movements on the contralateral or opposite side of the body.