The Primary Motor and Premotor Areas of the Human Cerebral Cortex

Abstract

Brodmann's cytoarchitectonic map of the human cortex designates area 4 as cortex in the anterior bank of the precentral sulcus and area 6 as cortex encompassing the precentral gyrus and the posterior portion of the superior frontal gyrus on both the lateral and medial surfaces of the brain. More than 70 years ago, Fulton proposed a functional distinction between these two areas, coining the terms primary motor area for cortex in Brodmann area 4 and premotor area for cortex in Brodmann area 6. The parcellation of the cortical motor system has subsequently become more complex. Several nonprimary motor areas have been identified in the brain of the macaque monkey, and associations between anatomy and function in the human brain are being tested continuously using brain mapping techniques. In the present review, the authors discuss the unique properties of the primary motor area (M1), the dorsal portion of the premotor cortex (PMd), and the ventral portion of the premotor cortex (PMv). They end this review by discussing how the premotor areas influence M1.

Different Roles of PMv and PMd during Object Lifting

“…In a different TMS study, Chouinard et al (2005) demonstrated that PMd selects forces for object lifting based on previously learned associations between arbitrary color cues and a particular weight. This finding is consistent with the notion that PMd is critical for implementing associations between contextual cues and motor responses (Wise and Murray, 2000;Chouinard and Paus, 2006).…”

“…PMv and the anterior intraparietal cortex transform the representation of the geometrical properties of an object to the motor commands required for grasping (Rizzolatti and Luppino, 2001). PMd receives information for the visual guidance of arm movement trajectories required to reach for an object (Rizzolatti et al, 1998) and also selects motor programs based on learned associations (Wise and Murray, 2000;Chouinard and Paus, 2006). Guiding the arm toward an object and the shaping of the hand for grasping are not enough to ensure proper manipulation of objects.…”

The influence of motor expertise on the brain activity of motor task performance: A meta-analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies

“…The authors found a functional dissociation between the ventral and dorsal premotor cortex: motor experts revealed increased activity in the ventral premotor cortex, whereas visual viewpoint influenced activity in both ventral and dorsal premotor cortex. Previous studies have shown that the premotor cortex plays a key role in the sensory guidance of motor behavior (e.g., Chouinard & Paus, 2006). The ventral premotor cortex is important for matching an observed motor act (i.e., sensory information) with an executed action (Hoshi & Tanji, 2007;Newman-Norlund, van Schie, van Zuijlen, & Bekkering, 2007).…”

Neural representations of kinematic laws of motion: Evidence for action-perception coupling

“…Activation, mostly lateralized to the left, was found in inferior and medial frontal regions, the bilateral dorsal premotor cortex (PMd), the left supplementary motor area (SMA), the bilateral postcentral gyrus, the left inferior parietal lobule (IPL), the bilateral superior temporal sulcus/gyrus (STS/STG), the left caudal and rostral cingulate zone (CCZ/RCZ), and the left anterior cerebellum. The majority of these brain areas are active during motion planning and execution (16), production of both rhythmic and discrete arm movements (17), movement imitation and mirror system activation (18), motor imagery (19), speech motion perception (20), perception of biological motion (21), and action observation (22) [see supporting information (SI) Table 2 for a more detailed list of studies with similarly activated areas to those shown in Fig. 1 and listed in Table 1].…”