Basal Ganglia Essay

The basal ganglia are a group of nuclei that act as a cohesive functional unit, and are located at the base of the forebrain. The basal ganglia have strong connections with the cerebral cortex, thalamus, and other areas of the brain like the supplemental premotor cortex. The basal ganglia are associated with a variety of functions, which include voluntary motor control, procedural learning, eye movements, and even emotional functions. Among its many essential functions, one of its most vital roles is the crucial part that it plays in locomotion by contributing to the automatic control of movements and to regulate voluntary control processes.1 The basal ganglia contribute to locomotion through muscle tone inhibition, which is regulated via excitatory cortical input and inhibitory basal ganglia input.2 Most of the information that details the functions of the basal …show more content…
This makes the study conducted by la Fougère et al. very important since it studied human beings. The group of researchers led by la Fougère studied the role of the basal ganglia using 16 subjects who engaged in real and imagined locomotion. The participants were asked to visualize themselves lying, standing, walking, or running.1 During the imagined locomotion trials, bilateral activation was observed in the supplementary motor areas of the brain.1 Imagery provided through fMRI found differences observed between the control group (imagined lying) and the group who visualized locomotion. The fMRI imagery performed suggests that visualized locomotion results in an increase in brain activity in areas associated with real locomotion when compared to the control group.1 More specifically, there was bilateral activation of the frontal inferior gyrus and anterior insula that was observed.1 These areas are thought to be responsible for the imagery of motion as well as cognitive task