Cortical mechanisms controlling limb movement

Abstract

Significant advances have been made this past year toward understanding the anatomy and physiology of motor cortical regions. New anatomical tracing techniques have elucidated intrinsic cortical connections as well as inter-areal connectivity. Magnetic stimulation of human cortex has provided new insights about the pathways mediating movements in humans. Neural recording studies in animals have further explored the behavioral variables that may be coded in activity of single units and populations. Recent approaches to neural network modeling offer some hope of synthesizing this wealth of detail into working simulations of networks that mediate motor behavior.