how does the cerebral cortex contribute?
1. Manual dexterity, of great evolutionary significance to the primates, ranges in complexity from the precise opposition of finger and thumb to Brendal playing Mozart. All dexterity depends on a sustained and rapid transfer of sensorimotor information between the cerebral cortex and the cervical spinal cord. 2. Multiple separate corticospinal neuron populations originate from cortical areas four, the supplementary motor area, anterior cingulate, postarcuate, parietal and insular cortex. Each corticospinal neuron population projects in parallel to all spinal segments, and has a distinctive pattern of terminations. 3. Each corticospinal neuron population has a unique thalamic input which can relay particular sensorimotor information from the sense organs, cerebellum and basal ganglia. The overall structural framework of these sensorimotor pathways, with many parallel corticospinal channels, with interconnections in the cerebral cortex and spinal cord to enable crosstalk between the chan
