The bilateral Right Cerebrum.Frontal Lobe.Precentral Gyrus corresponds to the primary motor cortex (Brodmann area 4) located on the anterior bank of the central sulcus in the frontal lobe of the right hemisphere, with its partner region in the left hemisphere forming the main cortical source of voluntary motor commands. This region exhibits a somatotopic organization (motor homunculus), with neurons arranged to control specific body parts, and plays a critical role in the initiation and execution of fine, skilled movements, particularly of the contralateral side of the body. It integrates inputs from premotor and supplementary motor areas as well as somatosensory regions, and its corticospinal projections descend through the internal capsule, brainstem, and spinal cord to influence spinal motor neurons involved in precise muscle activation. There is no direct link for this Talairach label; a related structure is the Precentral gyrus.
The bilateral right precentral gyrus (primary motor cortex) in the frontal lobe has been implicated in multiple genetic and GWAS-based findings, largely through imaging genetics and neuropsychiatric studies rather than region-specific gene effects alone. Variants in genes related to neurodevelopment, synaptic plasticity, and myelination (e.g., BDNF, NRG1, CNTNAP2, DISC1, and genes within major neurodevelopmental CNV regions such as 16p11.2 and 22q11.2) have been associated with alterations in cortical thickness, surface area, or activation of precentral motor regions, including the right hemisphere, in large consortia such as ENIGMA. GWAS of brain structural measures have identified associations between common variants (for example near genes such as HMGA2, MAPT, and various loci regulating neuronal proliferation and differentiation) and precentral gyrus morphology, though these effects are usually modest and distributed across many cortical areas. Functionally, genetic risk for disorders such as schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and developmental motor coordination disorders has been linked to altered structure and function of the precentral gyrus, including atypical lateralization and motor circuitry changes, while polygenic scores for educational attainment, general cognitive ability, and motor performance or hand skill have also shown correlations with structural and functional variation in this region, underscoring a highly polygenic and pleiotropic genetic architecture affecting the right precentral cortex.
Overview generated by GPT-4o (2026).
Region ID: 680
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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