Four years ago, the NIH’s Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative Cell Census Network (BICCN) was launched, with the aim of identifying and cataloguing ...

A Map of the Motor Cortex. Tap the index finger of your right hand. It's a simple maneuver, yet carrying it out requires a vastly complicated series of actions.

The project used the widest range of tools for probing brain cells ever brought to bear in a single, coordinated effort. Studies document how these tools measure different cellular properties ...

The BRAIN initiative was launched in 2014 by former president Barack Obama to revolutionize our understanding of the human brain. The new project builds on a previous effort to identify and map more ...

The homunculus map of the primary motor cortex (left), compared to the updated map (right). The new map includes regions that control whole-body movements. Gordon, et al. via Nature under CC BY 4.0 ...

It all happens deep inside the brain, in a region known as the cortex. And to explain it all, neuroscientists came up with the idea of the "homunculus," or "little man." Accessibility links ...

Most motor cortex brain cells have similar counterparts across all three species. But there are key differences. For instance, humans have more than twice as many neurons involved in excitatory ...

New data shows that an old model of the brain's motor cortex is incomplete Scientists found evidence of two interleaved systems, which may help explain the connection between what's going on in ...

Another brain region, called the premotor cortex, is known to have a role in planning movements, but the areas found by Gordon and Dosenbach's team are woven into the primary motor cortex itself.

As an example, upper limb regions of motor cortex project to more than 100 brain and spinal cord regions, while receiving projections back from around 60 brain areas.