ABSTRACT
Figure 6.1 shows a simplified surface view of a human left cerebral hemisphere. The two largest sulci are the central sulcus (CS), which separates the frontal lobe from the parietal lobe, and the Sylvian fissure (lateral sulcus), which separates the frontal and parietal lobes from the temporal lobe. The lobes posterior to the central sulcus map physical and perceptual features of the environment. The frontal lobes contain maps of responses (Funahashi, Bruce, & Goldman-Rakic, 1989; Passingham, 1993). The anterior bank of the central sulcus contains primary motor cortex, which conveys motor commands to brainstem and spinal cord centres. More anterior regions, which extend onto the medial wall (Fig. 6.2) contain representations of complex goal-oriented actions (Picard & Strick, 1996; Rizzolatti, Fogassi, & Gallese, 2000). The medial areas are active during motor learning. The presupplementary motor area (PreSMA) is more active during the learning of new sensorimotor sequences, whereas the supplementary motor area (SMA) is more active during their storage and execution (Nakamura, Sakai, & Hikosaka, 1999). Between the SMA and PreSMA is a specialized area, the supplementary eye fields (SEF), which is devoted to the control of goal-oriented saccades (Grosbras et al., 1999) that play a prominent role in visual attention.
