ABSTRACT
When psychologists talk about sensory and motor function they really mean input to and output from the nervous system. For example, the traffic light changes to red (sensory input), and you press the brake pedal (motor output). As you now know, the mammalian brain has large specialised areas dedicated to receiving and interpreting sensory input (separately for each modality), and making appropriate motor responses. These so-called sensory and motor regions of the cortex are not the only parts of the brain concerned with sensation and movement; several other cortical areas, and some sub-cortical structures are also involved. However, they have direct responsibilities, and are known as the primary sensory cortex and primary motor cortex respectively. We shall consider some of these areas, and their connections to the rest of the nervous system in this chapter.
