As one of the first cortical areas to be explored experimentally, the motor cortex continues to be the focus of intense research. Motor Cortex in Voluntary Movements: A Distributed System for Distributed Functions presents developments in motor cortex research, making it possible to understand and interpret neural activity and use it to reconstruct movements. Featuring viewpoints based on monkey and human studies, the book focuses on how neuronal activity changes during learning, discusses what the motor cortex encodes for, and covers the neuronal representations of voluntary movements and the mechanism of their generation during learning. Section 1 uses functional neuroanatomy and imaging studies to describe motor cortical function, and Section 2 provides an overview of studies about neural representations in the motor cortex. The third section concentrates on motor learning, and the final section highlights the reconstruction of movements using brain activity. Revealing many exciting applications of this rapidly expanding science, this book enhances our understanding of the generation of motor commands. It is an essential resource for neuroscientists interested in motor function, rehabilitation medicine practitioners, and biomedical engineers.

Table of Contents:
Functional Neuroanatomy and Imaging Motor Areas in the Frontal Lobe: The Anatomical Substrate for the Central Control of Movement, Richard P. Dum and Peter L. Strick Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Human Motor Cortex, Andreas Kleinschmidt and Ivan Toni Neuronal Representations in the Motor Cortex Motor Cortex Control of a Complex Peripheral Apparatus: The Neuromuscular Evolution of Individuated Finger Movements, Marc H. Schieber, Karen T. Reilly, and Catherine E. Lang Neuronal Representations of Bimanual Movements, Eilon Vaadia and Simone Cardoso de Oliveira What Is Coded in the Primary Motor Cortex? James Ashe Conceptual Frameworks for interpreting Motor Cortical Function: New Insights from a Planar Multiple-Joint Paradigm, Stephen H. Scott Wheels of Motion: Oscillatory Potentials in the Motor Cortex, William A. MacKay Preparation for Action: One of the Key Functions of the Motor Cortex, Alexa Riehle Is the Motor Cortex Only an Executive Area? Its Role in Motor Cognition, Marc Jeannerod Motor Learning and Performance The Arbitrary Mapping of Sensory Inputs to Voluntary and Involuntary Movement: Learning-Dependent Activity in the Motor Cortex and Other Telencephalic Networks, Peter L. Brasted and Steven P. Wise Learning Dynamics of Reaching, Reza Shadmehr, Opher Donchin, Eun-Jung Hwang, Sarah E. Hemminger, and Ashwini K. Rao Cortical Control of Motor Learning, Camillo Padoa-Schioppa, Emilio Bizzi, and Ferdinando A. Mussa-Ivaldi Reconstruction of Movements Using Brain Activity Advances in Brain-Machine Interfaces, Jose M. Carmena and Miguel A.L. Nicolelis Human Brain-Computer Interface, Gert Pfurtscheller, Christa Neuper, and Niels Birbaumer