Cortical control of complex sequential movement studied by functional neuroimaging techniques

Recent advances in functional neuroimaging techniques permit non‐invasive visualization of the human brain functions. In the central mechanism for controlling complex sequential movement, several candidate brain regions have been suggested to participate in a different way by the previous studies. The motor executive areas including the bilateral primary sensorimotor area and supplementary motor area, appear to play an executive role in running motor sequences, regardless of their length, and increase their activity associated with implicit or procedural learning of motor sequence. In contrast, the fronto‐parietal network including the bilateral premotor, prefrontal and posterior parietal cortices appears to be related to the length of sequence performed and increases its activity associated with explicit or declarative learning of motor sequence. Although these techniques provide useful information on human physiology and pathophysiology in various brain functions, in order to explore functional relevance of findings it is important to combine functional neuroimaging studies with other modalities of physiological techniques.