- Used for the preparation/organization of movements
- Ex. For individuals that have damage to the SMA, they cannot move outside of automatic reflexes (that are involuntary)

Supplementary Motor Area (SMA)

- The premotor cortex is utilized when a stimuli from the outside world is present, and spurs on certain movements/behaviors to occur as a result 
- Not considered "one" system but has a multitude of functions in order to plan the movement of an organism 
- For example, this includes awareness of objects, and mirroring of behavior

Premotor Cortex

- Contributes to movement by "communicating" (sending messages) to brain stem and spinal cord, and by regulating M1
- Contains the supplementary motor area (SMA) and the premotor cortex

Smith College

- Our motor cortices help to facilitate the movements of our body in different ways
- There are two motor cortices: 
- Primary Motor Cortex (referred to as M1) 
- Nonprimary motor cortex (which contains the premotor cortex and the supplementary motor area), is anterior to M1 

Motor Cortices

Breedlove, S. & Watson, N. (2017). Behavioral neuroscience, eighth edition. Oxford University Press.

Behavioral Neuroscience 8th Edition

- Region of the brain involved in the initiation of movement 
- Specific regions of the motor cortex are associated with the movement of individual body parts/muscles ("maps" of M1 exhibit this concept)
- The M1 exhibits "learning" when movement is habituated

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