Shared Cortical Anatomy for Motor Awareness and Motor Control.

In everyday life, the successful monitoring of behavior requirescontinuous updating of the effectiveness of motor acts; one crucial stepis becoming aware of the movements one is performing. We studied theanatomical distribution of lesions in right-brain-damaged hemiplegicpatients, who obstinately denied their motor impairment, claiming thatthey could move their paralyzed limbs. Denial was associated withlesions in areas related to the programming of motor acts, particularlyBrodmann's premotor areas 6 and 44, motor area 4, and the somatosensorycortex. This association suggests that monitoring systems may beimplemented within the same cortical network that is responsible for theprimary function that has to be monitored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]