Bilateral Left Cerebrum.Frontal Lobe.Precentral Gyrus.Gray Matter.Brodmann area 6 corresponds largely to the premotor cortex, a frontal lobe region anterior to the primary motor cortex (Brodmann area 4) that plays a key role in the planning, selection, and preparation of voluntary movements. Neurons in this agranular cortical area receive multisensory and higher-order associative inputs and transform them into motor programs, contributing to posture, movement sequencing, and integration of external cues (e.g., visual or somatosensory) into motor behavior. Functionally, area 6 is involved in motor learning, coordination of complex, goal-directed actions, and the generation of motor imagery, and it forms part of distributed motor networks linking prefrontal, parietal, basal ganglia, and cerebellar circuits. There is no dedicated Wikipedia article for Brodmann area 6 itself; a closely related structure is the premotor cortex: Premotor cortex.
The bilateral left cerebrum frontal lobe precentral gyrus (BA6), a premotor/supplementary motor region, features prominently in genetic imaging studies where common variants influence its gray matter volume, cortical thickness, and activation. Large-scale GWAS of brain morphology (e.g., ENIGMA, UK Biobank) have identified loci near and within genes such as HMGA2, IGF1, and various neurodevelopmental and synaptic genes that affect global and regional cortical measures, with BA6 often implicated as part of motor and frontal networks rather than in isolation. Genetic liability for movement-related disorders, including Parkinson’s disease and dystonia, as well as rare monogenic motor syndromes, has been associated with altered structure or function in premotor areas encompassing BA6. Polygenic risk scores for schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder, and ADHD show correlations with frontal motor and premotor cortical measures, including regions overlapping BA6, suggesting shared neurodevelopmental pathways affecting motor planning and cognitive control. In addition, GWAS of traits such as general cognitive ability, educational attainment, and psychomotor speed have linked frontal cortical metrics and network-level connectivity—including BA6—to the cumulative effects of many variants in genes involved in neuronal migration, synapse formation, and myelination, though specific, robust single-gene associations uniquely and consistently confined to BA6 gray matter in the Talairach 2 mm atlas are limited, with most findings reflecting broader frontal and motor system genetic influences.
Overview generated by GPT-4o (2026).
Region ID: 682
Hemisphere: bilateral
Atlas: Talairach labels 2mm
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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