Pre-motor cortex plays a key role when we learn to play an instrument, such as guitar, when we learn to drive, or when we acquire a new skill, this helps us design and automate motion sequences to perform a task correctly.
Imagine a friend telling you about a negative event that happened recently. His father was sick and passed away, but he doesn’t give us all the information: “My father was very ill and yesterday. “Despite this lack of information, we are able to deduce the end of the story and put ourselves in each other’s place.
- Several studies indicate that the pre-motor cortex is also involved in empathy and mirror neurons.
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The brain is divided into four parts called brain lobes
The premotor cortex is located in the frontal lobe, this lobe is the most recent brain structure of human evolution and is linked to the need to control and coordinate the most complex cognitive and behavioral processes.
To contextualize the premotor cortex a little more, let’s briefly review the structure of the frontal lobe and its main functions, this lobe is divided into three main regions: medial, orbital and dorsolateral, these regions in turn are divided into zones: dorsolateral frontal cortex, motor and pre-motor cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, orbital cortex and frontal-medial cortex.
The main functions of the frontal lobe are: planning, behavioral control, mental flexibility, working memory, mastery of research and information updating, metacognition, mentalization or the ability to understand what another person is thinking, social behavior and social cognition (Flores-Lazaro and Ostrosky-Solos, 2018).
Nadia Justel and Veranika Diaz (2012) concluded in one of their research that “specifically the pre-motor cortex and cerebellum have shown a fundamental role in the planning, preparation, execution and control of sequential finger movements”.
Thus, the results of this research demonstrate the importance of pre-motor cortex in tasks such as playing an instrument, driving and those that require the use of both hands.
“The Garden of Neurology offers the researcher captivating interpretations and incomparable artistic emotions. ” – Santiago Ramon y Cajal-
On the other hand, Pardo-Vzquez and Acua (2014) studied the participation of the pre-motor cortex in decision-making, concluding that this is a fundamental structure, as it participates in the different stages of the decision-making process based on visual information.
Neurons in the pre-motor cortex not only encode information, but compare it, and not only that, through this coding and comparison, we readjust and adapt our behavior as we process this information, conditioning it to the situation.
Empathy and mirror neurons also appear to have a place in the premotor cortex; Mirror neurons in this area have been shown to activate during an action, but not only that, they are always active when part of the action is hidden, so that the end can only be inferred. How important is this discovery?
In this way, it is verified that we are not only linked to an action when we see it, but that we generate internally in the pre-motor cortex the motor representation of an action carried out by other people.
This allows us to understand others and their intentions, which is associated with empathy (Moya-Albiol, Herro and Bernal, 2010).
The study of them represents a great difficulty for scientists because of their complexity, although they constantly update the data through new discoveries.
The premotor cortex, like the different areas of the brain, is still the subject of extensive and interesting scientific research, in this article we have only outlined the main functions of this area of the brain, however, it would not be surprising that in a few years or even months we could get more information.
“It is necessary to vigorously shake the forest of sleeping brain neurons, is it necessary to make them vibrate with the emotion of the new and infuse them with noble and high worries?-Santiago Ramón y Cajal-
Knowing our brain and knowing how it works gives us very useful information to take advantage of this complex organ, for example, knowing that our brain gradually changes as we learn a new skill can serve as motivation not to give up when we start a new one. learning experience.
Thus, despite the initial difficulties, we know that on a mental level we learn and that gives us a great motivation. So let’s try to learn!