Overview
- The paper reports a distributed facial motor network spanning cingulate motor, primary motor, premotor, and somatosensory cortices in macaques.
- Recordings show both medial and lateral regions encode emotional and voluntary gestures, challenging the long-standing two-system model.
- Lateral motor areas display fast, millisecond-scale dynamics, whereas medial regions carry slower, stable signals.
- Gesture-related neural patterns appear well before any visible movement, indicating advance preparation for social communication.
- Using fMRI to localize regions and single-neuron recordings during threats, lipsmacks, and chewing elicited by social stimuli, the team outlines mechanisms that researchers say could inform future brain–machine interfaces and rehabilitation.