The bilateral Left Cerebrum.Frontal Lobe.Medial Frontal Gyrus.Gray Matter.Brodmann area 6 corresponds largely to the medial portion of the premotor cortex and supplementary motor area (SMA) in the frontal lobe, situated anterior to the primary motor cortex (Brodmann area 4) and superior to the cingulate gyrus. This agranular cortex is involved in planning, sequencing, and coordination of complex voluntary movements, motor preparation, and internally generated actions, including bimanual coordination and posture control. It integrates sensory, limbic, and prefrontal inputs to contribute to motor intention, selection of action plans, and aspects of motor learning and imagery. Medially, it forms part of the superior frontal gyrus/medial frontal gyrus complex and participates in networks underlying motor control, attention to action, and some aspects of executive function. There is no direct Wikipedia article for this exact Talairach label; a closely related structure is the Premotor cortex.
The medial frontal gyrus in Brodmann area 6, encompassing premotor and supplementary motor regions, has been implicated in numerous genetic and GWAS findings, largely through imaging genetics that link common variants to gray matter volume, cortical thickness, and functional activation. Variants in genes affecting synaptic function and neurodevelopment (e.g., BDNF, COMT, CACNA1C, DRD2, and multiple glutamatergic and GABAergic pathway genes) have been associated with structural and functional differences in medial frontal premotor cortices, often in the context of motor planning, cognitive control, and action monitoring. Large-scale GWAS of brain morphology (ENIGMA and UK Biobank cohorts) have identified polygenic influences on frontal lobe volumes, including medial premotor regions, with overlap between loci influencing frontal gray matter and risk for psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, ADHD, and autism spectrum disorders. Imaging genetics studies in these conditions consistently report BA6/medial frontal alterations associated with risk alleles in neurodevelopmental and synaptic genes, suggesting that genetic liability partly manifests through abnormal premotor and medial frontal organization. In addition, GWAS of traits such as general cognitive ability, response inhibition, motor skills, and risk-taking behavior reveal shared genetic architectures with medial frontal activation and morphology, indicating that individual differences in this region’s structure and function are moderately heritable and contribute to both clinical phenotypes and normal variation in executive and motor control.
Overview generated by GPT-4o (2026).
Region ID: 1009
Hemisphere: bilateral
Atlas: Talairach labels 1mm
Full Quality Version: Download MP4
Full Quality Version: Download MP4
Wali Sidiqyar*, Gaurav Rudravaram*, Elyssa M. McMaster, Trent M. Schwartz, Adam M. Saunders, Kurt G. Schilling, Bennett A. Landman "Introducing SPINS: A Shared Public Visualization Library of Neuroanatomical Structures." Medical Imaging with Deep Learning- short paper
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