ALPHABETICAL BRAIN VOCABULARY Flash Card #22 - Details WHAT IS YOUR "MOTOR CORTEX" AND WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT? Your MOTOR CORTEX is a cluster of specialized neurons in a "strip" that is situated at the back side of your FRONTAL CORTEX (frontal lobe) in front of your CENTRAL SULCUS. Your MOTOR CORTEX has such great plasticity that it can control many muscles at the same time, thus creating a range of movements from simple to very complex. It is interconnected with your AMYGDALA and other structures of your LIMBIC SYSTEM, which together can smoothly regulate both your "fight-or-flight" emotional defense or escape mechanism and also your "conditioned" emotional learning system! SOURCE = See the book, A User's Guide to the Brain by John J. Ratey: pages 164-165) Return to #22: MOTOR CORTEX or BRAIN FACTS MATRIX