Motor network

The motor network plans, initiates, and refines voluntary movement. Its cortical core is the precentral gyrus, the primary motor cortex, working with the adjacent premotor and supplementary motor areas; the postcentral gyrus provides the somatosensory feedback that movement depends on, so the system is often described as sensorimotor.

Cortical motor commands are shaped by two great subcortical loops: the basal ganglia, which gate and scale movement, and the cerebellum, which corrects timing and coordination. The primary descending pathway is the corticospinal tract through the internal capsule.

The somatotopic organisation of primary motor and somatosensory cortex, the motor and sensory homunculi, maps body parts onto the cortical surface, and focal lesions along this system produce correspondingly focal weakness or sensory loss.