Premotor cortex

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Premotor cortex
Image of brain with Brodmann areas numbered
Brodmann area 6
Details
Part of	The brain
Artery	Middle cerebral artery
Identifiers
Latin	cortex praemotorius
NeuroNames	2331
FMA	224852
Anatomical terms of neuroanatomy [edit on Wikidata]

The premotor cortex is an area of the motor cortex lying within the frontal lobe of the brain just anterior to the primary motor cortex. It occupies part of Brodmann's area 6. It has been studied mainly in primates, including monkeys and humans.

The functions of the premotor cortex are diverse and not fully understood. It projects directly to the spinal cord and therefore may play a role in the direct control of behavior, with a relative emphasis on the trunk muscles of the body. It may also play a role in planning movement, in the spatial guidance of movement, in the sensory guidance of movement, in understanding the actions of others, and in using abstract rules to perform specific tasks. Different subregions of the premotor cortex have different properties and presumably emphasize different functions. Nerve signals generated in the premotor cortex cause much more complex patterns of movement than the discrete patterns generated in the primary motor cortex.