Premotor cortex

Schippers, Gazzola, Goebel, and Keysers (2009) examined how different areas of the brains were activated in romantically involved couples while playing the game of charades. The study used charades to investigate the neural basis of gestural communication by having participants act out and interpret predetermined gestures while their brain activity was being recorded inside of an fMRI machine. Data gathered from the fMRI showed that during production of gestures, the putative motor neuron system (pMNS) composed of the premotor, parietal, and posterior mid-temporal cortices was most significantly recruited. However, during the interpretation condition of the experiment there was significant activation in the both the pMNS and temporo-parietal…

“Go Away,” a teenage boy screams after getting in an argument with his parents. The teenage brain is constantly changing, resulting in the teenager to make rash decisions that adults don’t understand. Many adults and teenagers don’t realize how different their brains are and perceiving the differences may help improve the bond between parents and the teenager. The reliance on the back of the brain rather then the front, brain’s plasticity and the desire for the unknown are key components that…

There has also been somatosensory study expansion into the area of vicarious pain. Pain has been shown to cross the self-other divide that is bridged with the mirror system, allowing observation of pain in others to activate pain processing mirror neuron systems in the observer (31,32, 37) with some physical locations of pain more sensitive to mirroring in the observer than others (40). The anterior insula, an area involved in the processing of both emotional and sensory information (a…

the way the brain is developed impacts the way an adolescent associates their self within society. It is not a myth that many people believe to be true, but it is actually something that has been scientifically proven to be real. During this time of storm and stress, many adolescents have conflicts with their parents. The frequency of these conflicts can be explained with science. Jay N. Giedd (2015) describes how the limbic system and the prefrontal cortex in the brain play a huge role in how a…

In this article the focus was on how there haven’t been many studies done on how the adolescent brain changes during puberty over the years, but that is slowly changing. The authors also talked about some of the experiments and studies that have been done already dealing with the adolescent brain. The focus of some of these studies ranged from White Matter (WM) and Gray Matter (GM) to the Prefrontal Cortex (PFC). When the authors were talking about WM and GM it was stated that throughout…

“Teenagers use more of their prefrontal cortex resources than adults did.” (P.56) Prefrontal cortex is not only responsible for underlies planning but also voluntary behavior. Luna says there are two kinds of self-control behavior. The exogenous and endogenous. Exogenous control is reflexive, and it is generated by external stimuli. Endogenous control is voluntary and it is generated by internal plan. It basically means exogenous control is caused by outside affects, and endogenous control is…

There are several theories about the cause aggression and violence. Researchers believe environmental effects during childhood prior to puberty can affect a person’s violent tendencies as an adult. Serious traumatic experiences or social or physical abuse in combination with high levels of MAOA leads to more antisocial and aggressive tendencies as an adult. High levels of MAOA alone do not predispose a person to aggression, but social and physical abuse trigger the MAOA gene leading to the…

I’s brain, along with many others that faced damage in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, did its best to compensate for the sense of deep loss. At first, Mr. I fell into a state of denial. He could not seem to believe that he had lost all sense of color. He went to work as normal, only to his surprise to find the weather remarkably bland, though he knew the sun shone brightly that day. He had no knowledge of running red lights, or even what had occurred the previous day. In the days and…

In the past it was believed that the cerebellum received information from various areas of the cortex and projected information to the primary motor cortex via thalamus, thus fine-tuning a movement (19). It was also believed that the Basal ganglia was involved with the inhibition and selection of action commands (19). These views suggest the involvement of both cerebellum and Basal ganglia(BG) in purely motor function. But that is not the case, recent studies have found a connection between the…

the faces of the dancers were blurred in order to emphasize body movement. Furthermore, in order to test the assumption that differences in brain activation were due to expertise levels alone, two non-expert control groups were tested to see if they experienced similar activity levels while watching both styles of dance. If they both experienced similar activity levels then it could be concluded that any differences in action observation activity were due to differences in the expertise levels…