premotor cortex

Lying within the frontal lobe, the premotor cortex is the area of motor cortex immediately anterior to the primary motor cortex. It extends about 3 mm anterior to the primary motor cortex near the Sylvian fissure, then narrows to roughly 1 mm near the medial longitudinal fissure, which forms the posterior border of the prefrontal cortex. In cytoarchitectural terms the region is largely equivalent to Brodmann area 6. Activity within it is critical to the sensory guidance of movement and to control of the proximal and trunk muscles of the body, a division of labour that distinguishes it from cortex governing distal musculature. Its Latin designation is the intermediate precentral cortex, reflecting its position between the primary motor and prefrontal fields.