ALPHABETICAL BRAIN VOCABULARY Flash Card #32 - Details WHAT IS YOUR "BASAL GANGLIA" AND WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT? Your BASAL GANGLIA is the "first floor" of Your MOTOR CORTEX, which is located in the middle of your LIMBIC SYSTEM. It is a bundle of nuclei at the base of your FOREBRAIN including your STRIATUM and your GLOBUS PALLIDUS. Responses from the SENSORY NEURONS throughout your body are interpreted here deep inside your LIMBIC SYSTEM and routed through your BASAL GANGLIA to the other parts of your LIMBIC SYSTEM, such as your AMYGDALA or HYPOTHALAMUS ("emotional brain") and then to your PFC or PREFRONTAL CORTEX ("intellectual brain") for immediate action. Thus it is primarily concerned with coordinating the movements of your body by selecting and mediating muscle groups according to the strength of "neuronal signaling" or "synaptic potentiation" that had previously occurred. Return to #32: BASAL GANGLIA or LIST OF BRAIN FLASH CARDS