Frontal Lobe · Structure
Primary Motor Cortex
A strip of tissue that moves your whole body.
Running like a headband across the back of the frontal lobe, the primary motor cortex sends the commands that contract your muscles. Its map of the body is famously distorted: hands and lips get enormous territory, while your back gets very little.
What it does
- Initiating voluntary movement
- Controlling fine finger and mouth movement
- Coordinating with cerebellum for smoothness
In the real world
Brain–computer interfaces
Electrodes placed over the motor cortex let paralyzed volunteers move a robotic arm or type by imagining the motion. The signal is read straight from this strip.