Editorial: The role of primary motor cortex as a marker and modulator of pain control and emotional-affective processing

[Excerpt] In the 1940–50’s Wilder Penfield and colleagues applied cortical electrical stimulation to patients
undergoing epilepsy surgery to define what has become one of the landmarks on neuroscience: a
map of the anatomical divisions of the body, divided in two cortical homunculi: sensory and motor
(Penfield and Boldrey, 1937).
Ever since, the development of new tools to investigate brain function non-invasively increased
knowledge about the structure and functions of the primary motor Cortex (M1) beyond motor
control in both humans and animals. For instance, the role of M1 in visuomotor transformations,
mental imagery, or mental rotation has been shown in studies dating more than 30 years ago
(Georgopoulos and Pellizzer, 1995; Kosslyn et al., 1998). Also, M1 seems to be activated during
memory retrieval of sensory information or finger tapping sequences after a short delay (Kaas
et al., 2007), suggesting the M1 involvement with memory processes; as well as involved in
language processing of action related words (de Lafuente and Romo, 2004; Hauk et al., 2004;
Pulvermuller, 2005 for review). Furthermore, the involvement of the M1 region in higher cognitive
functions has also been demonstrated in emotional processing. There seems to be a correlation
between sensorimotor activation and empathy (Lamm et al., 2007), as well as relationship between
sensorimotor activation and emotional processing in silent reading of emotionally laden words
(Papeo et al., 2012). Moreover, M1 seems to be asymmetrically modulated by here emotionally
laden sounds, with unpleasant sounds resulting in higher facilitation od motor evoked potentials
in the left hemisphere, whereas pleasant sounds resulted in higher excitability in the right side
(Komeilipoor et al., 2013). [...]
JL and SC are supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and European Union (FSE-POPH) with individual awards SFRH/BPD/86027/2012) and (IF/00091/2015). JL, SC are members of CIPSi, supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education through national funds and co-financed by FEDER through COMPETE2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007653); and also through the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology PTDC/MHC-PCN/3950/2014. FF is funded by the following NIH grants: R21HD079048, R01HD082302, 1R44NS080632-01, 1R44AT008637, HD069776.