Motor Maps
The normal representation of movement in the brain and reorganization of motor maps following brain injury
The topographical representation of movement in the motor cortex can be investigated by stimulating the cortex and recording evoked movements, as illustrated by a figurine map of movements evoked from the motor cortex of the cat.
One way of investigating the representation of movement in the brain is to study motor maps or the topographical representation of muscles in different parts of the brain, by stimulating the cerebral cortex and observing the movements evoked from different parts of motor cortex. This allows us to examine the projections of motor cortex to spinal motor neurons innervating the muscles of the body. Following injury or disease of part of the motor cortex (for example in a stroke), recovery of motor function is partly dependant on changes in the connections and functions of surviving areas of the cortex. These changes (neural plasticity or reorganization) are studied by looking at motor maps after motor cortical lesions, and the role played by reorganized maps (also called representational plasticity) in motor recovery.
