Definition and research guide
This page combines a MeSH definition, publication statistics and selected research abstracts. It is a starting point for reading the literature, not a medical textbook or a systematic evidence review.
Content available: 3 complete abstracts (574 words), 9 references. Full article text is not stored or reproduced here; follow the PMID, DOI or PMC links to read the original sources and their access terms.
Definition
Area of the frontal lobe concerned with primary motor control located in the dorsal precentral gyrus immediately anterior to the central sulcus. It is comprised of three areas: the primary motor cortex located on the anterior paracentral lobule on the medial surface of the brain; the premotor cortex located anterior to the primary motor cortex; and the supplementary motor area located on the midline surface of the hemisphere anterior to the primary motor cortex.
Definition: NLM Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) scope note (Public domain (U.S. National Library of Medicine); attribution requested). View the MeSH record.
Also known as: Cortex, Motor; Motor Area; Area, Motor; Motor Areas; Somatic Motor Areas; Area, Somatic Motor; Motor Area, Somatic; Somatic Motor Area.
Where it fits in the MeSH classification
- Broader topics
- Frontal Lobe; Sensorimotor Cortex
Related concepts
- Frontal Lobe
- Precentral Gyrus
Research landscape
PubMed indexes 26,916 records tagged with the MeSH heading “Motor Cortex” (counts retrieved 2026-10-29). 5,158 of them (19.2%) were published from 2020 onward, and the busiest period so far is 2010-2019 with 8,733 records.
Reviews account for 1,797 records (6.7%) and meta-analyses for 126. Randomized controlled trials number 1,178 (4.4%) as a share of all records on the topic.
Show the data
| Period | Records |
|---|---|
| through 1999 | 6,896 |
| 2000-2009 | 6,129 |
| 2010-2019 | 8,733 |
| 2020 onward | 5,158 |
Publication-type chart data
| Type | Records | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Reviews | 1,797 | 6.7% |
| Meta-analyses | 126 | 0.5% |
| Randomized controlled trials | 1,178 | 4.4% |
Method: PubMed query "Motor Cortex"[MeSH Terms] with publication-type and date filters, retrieved 2026-10-29.
Reading the evidence in neuroscience
Neuroscience draws on tools with different strengths: cellular and animal work can manipulate circuits directly, while human imaging and electrophysiology observe the living brain at lower resolution. Small imaging studies are prone to false positives, and findings in animals do not always carry over to people. Clinical neurology and psychiatry rely on trials and cohort studies whose outcomes are often symptom scales. Check the species, the sample size, how the outcome was measured and whether results were replicated.
Evidence from open-access studies
These open-access studies come from PubMed’s best-match results for this heading (papers whose main topic it is), ranked here by citation count, with one recent addition. Each abstract is reproduced in full under its recorded open licence so that you can read the authors’ own words. They illustrate the literature; they are not a systematic summary of it. Citation counts measure attention, not reliability or clinical benefit.
| Study / authors | Year | Source label / design | Europe PMC citations | Licence / source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cardiac, respiratory, and gastric rhythms independently modulate motor corticospinal excitability in humans | 2025 | Research article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 20 | cc by PMID 41223212 · DOI · PMC12629470 |
| Stage-dependent cerebrocerebellar communication during sensorimotor processing | 2025 | Research article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 11 | cc by PMID 41044080 · DOI · PMC12494962 |
| Motor cortex directly excites the substantia nigra pars reticulata, the basal ganglia output nucleus | 2026 | Research article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 8 | cc by PMID 42336891 · DOI · PMC13291323 |
Cardiac, respiratory, and gastric rhythms independently modulate motor corticospinal excitability in humans [1]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- Interoception refers to the brain's sensing of internal body state and encompasses various bodily systems, notably the cardiac, respiratory, and gastric rhythms.
- Closing excerpt
- Altogether, our results call for refined specifications of the frameworks offering a functional or clinical interpretation of viscera-brain coupling taking into account both independent mechanisms and individual interoceptive profiles.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (272 words)
Interoception refers to the brain's sensing of internal body state and encompasses various bodily systems, notably the cardiac, respiratory, and gastric rhythms. Beyond their roles in physiological regulation and emotional states, each of these visceral rhythms has been shown to influence brain activity and cognition, prompting for the development of various interpretative functional frameworks. However, both experimental data and functional hypothesis leave it unclear whether and how each visceral rhythm acts simultaneously and independently on brain activity. Here, we address this question by measuring in human participants how the corticospinal excitability of the motor system varies with the phase of each of the three visceral rhythms. We applied single pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the hand region in primary motor cortex to elicit Motor Evoked Potentials (MEPs), whose amplitude reflects corticospinal excitability, and tested whether MEP amplitude depends on the phase of the simultaneously measured cardiac, respiratory, and gastric rhythms. All three visceral rhythms were coupled to motor excitability with similar effect sizes at the group level. However, we found no relation between coupling strengths: participants displaying high coupling with one organ did not necessarily display high coupling to the other organs. These results indicate that independent mechanisms could underly the coupling between the cardiac, respiratory, and gastric rhythms and motor excitability. We further introduce the concept of individual interoceptive profiles and show that such interoceptive profiles obtained from objective coupling strength measures were not explained by self-reported awareness of the organ. Altogether, our results call for refined specifications of the frameworks offering a functional or clinical interpretation of viscera-brain coupling taking into account both independent mechanisms and individual interoceptive profiles.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 41223212 · DOI · PMC12629470
Stage-dependent cerebrocerebellar communication during sensorimotor processing [2]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- Cerebral cortex and cerebellum are essential for sensorimotor control, but the dynamics of their interactions remain unclear.
- Closing excerpt
- Together our data point towards a swap in direction of information flow between cerebrum and cerebellum when motor preparation switches to execution.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (150 words)
Cerebral cortex and cerebellum are essential for sensorimotor control, but the dynamics of their interactions remain unclear. Here, we investigated which pathways prevail during preparation and execution of spontaneous whisker movements in mice. During preparation, neuronal activity of primary motor (M1) and somatosensory (S1) cortex precede that of cerebellar crus regions, with a lead that is consistent with relaying a copy of motor commands. After movement onset, the phase of the signal inverts, indicating a dominant vector signaling from cerebellum to cerebrum. At this stage, Purkinje cell activity correlates more with S1 than M1, generating a prediction of sensory consequences during motor actions. A computational cerebello-cortical model could replicate the changes in dynamics and directionality. Optogenetic manipulations of pons and thalamus confirm the modeled predictions on stage-dependent dynamics. Together our data point towards a swap in direction of information flow between cerebrum and cerebellum when motor preparation switches to execution.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 41044080 · DOI · PMC12494962
Motor cortex directly excites the substantia nigra pars reticulata, the basal ganglia output nucleus [3]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- Inhibitory neurons of the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr) serve as a primary output through which the basal ganglia regulate behavior.
- Closing excerpt
- These findings reveal functional pathways by which the motor cortex can directly modulate basal ganglia output to downstream targets.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (152 words)
Inhibitory neurons of the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr) serve as a primary output through which the basal ganglia regulate behavior. Using a virally targeted optogenetic approach, combined with whole cell patch-clamp recordings of SNr neurons, we show that, in mice, projection neurons of both primary and secondary motor cortices (M1 and M2) form monosynaptic excitatory connections onto different subpopulations of GABAergic SNr neurons. Furthermore, photostimulation of these cortical axon terminals markedly increases SNr neuron firing rate. To investigate the spatial organization of cortical input to the SNr, we employed a transsynaptic viral-labelling approach to identify SNr neurons receiving monosynaptic input from either M1 or M2. We found a topographical organization of the M1 and M2 projections in SNr. Chemogenetic inhibition of M1- and M2-targeted SNr neurons induced opposing changes in spontaneous behavior. These findings reveal functional pathways by which the motor cortex can directly modulate basal ganglia output to downstream targets.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 42336891 · DOI · PMC13291323
Key reviews and meta-analyses
The most cited review-type papers among PubMed’s best-match results for this heading, listed with bibliographic details only. Follow the links for the full text and access terms.
- Research article Cortical control of arm movements: a dynamical systems perspective [4]
- Research article Neural Manifolds for the Control of Movement [5]
- Research article A quantitative meta-analysis and review of motor learning in the human brain [6]
- Research article Speech rhythms and their neural foundations [7]
- Research article Neural mechanisms of movement planning: motor cortex and beyond [8]
- Research article The uses and interpretations of the motor-evoked potential for understanding behaviour [9]
References
- Engelen T, Schuhmann T, Sack AT, Tallon-Baudry C. Cardiac, respiratory, and gastric rhythms independently modulate motor corticospinal excitability in humans. . 2025. PMID 41223212 · DOI · PMC12629470
- Romano V, van Driessche M, van Wingerden N, Bauer S, Boeser B, Mejias JF, et al.. Stage-dependent cerebrocerebellar communication during sensorimotor processing. . 2025. PMID 41044080 · DOI · PMC12494962
- Thompson WS, Wekwejt P, Grillner S, Silberberg G. Motor cortex directly excites the substantia nigra pars reticulata, the basal ganglia output nucleus. . 2026. PMID 42336891 · DOI · PMC13291323
- Shenoy KV, Sahani M, Churchland MM. Cortical control of arm movements: a dynamical systems perspective. Annu Rev Neurosci. 2013. PMID 23725001 · DOI
- Gallego JA, Perich MG, Miller LE, Solla SA. Neural Manifolds for the Control of Movement. Neuron. 2017. PMID 28595054 · DOI · PMC6122849
- Hardwick RM, Rottschy C, Miall RC, Eickhoff SB. A quantitative meta-analysis and review of motor learning in the human brain. Neuroimage. 2013. PMID 23194819 · DOI · PMC3555187
- Poeppel D, Assaneo MF. Speech rhythms and their neural foundations. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2020. PMID 32376899 · DOI
- Svoboda K, Li N. Neural mechanisms of movement planning: motor cortex and beyond. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2018. PMID 29172091 · DOI
- Bestmann S, Krakauer JW. The uses and interpretations of the motor-evoked potential for understanding behaviour. Exp Brain Res. 2015. PMID 25563496 · DOI
About this article
- Sources
- NLM Medical Subject Headings (definition, synonyms); NCBI PubMed (counts, identifiers); Europe PMC (open-access abstracts and citation counts).
- Verification
- Every reference was resolved against PubMed on 2026-10-31; title, year and DOI matched.
- Review state
- automated source verified; no human expert review has been recorded yet.
- Version
- 1, last updated 2026-10-29.
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Evidence strength
EvidenceHelix's computed view of the study designs behind this topic: how common meta-analyses, randomized trials and reviews are, how recent the literature is, and a plain-language reading. It describes the design mix of the literature. It is not a quality appraisal of any study, and it is not medical advice.