Overview
- The Science study identifies a distributed facial motor network spanning cingulate motor, primary and ventral premotor, and somatosensory cortices with direct access to facial muscles.
- Findings show medial and lateral regions both encode voluntary and emotional gestures, overturning the long-held segregation model.
- Neural activity unfolds on distinct timescales, with rapid dynamics in lateral motor areas and slower, sustained patterns in medial cortex.
- Signals predicting threatening, lipsmacking, and chewing gestures emerge before visible movement in fMRI-guided recordings from behaving macaques.
- A related PNAS analysis indicates these areas operate as a single, movement-dependent sensorimotor network, with translational possibilities still prospective for clinical use and brain–machine interfaces.